Sound Of Fear

Unfortunately, he had no idea what Ms. Amanda Curtiss of Boston wanted with an attorney in tiny Echo Falls, Pennsylvania. The contact had been made by someone he’d met at a conference last year. He and Robert McKinley had sat and talked one evening, exchanged business cards and parted, sure they’d never see each other again. Until his call came out of the blue.

McKinley had been downright evasive on the phone when he’d set up this appointment. It was the sort of approach Trey might have instinctively refused back in the day when they’d had more business than they could handle. Not now. He could only hope this Amanda Curtiss wasn’t a nutcase.

The intercom buzzed, and he stood as the door opened. “Ms. Curtiss, Mr. Alter,” Evelyn Lincoln, their office manager, murmured.

She closed the door discreetly, and Trey had a moment to assess the woman who came toward him. Slim, average height, with blond hair pulled back in a tie at her nape and intensely blue eyes that were looking him over, as well. And perhaps a bit disapprovingly. He had a quick impression of expensive casual clothes and an assured manner before they were shaking hands and murmuring conventional greetings.

“I see you brought a friend to our meeting.” Trey nodded to the yellow Lab that followed at the woman’s heels.

“I didn’t want to leave him in the car. Your receptionist said it would be okay if I brought him inside. I hope you don’t dislike dogs.” She sounded as if that would end this meeting in a hurry.

“Not at all.” He held out the back of his hand to the animal. “I hope he likes attorneys.”

“Barney’s quite indiscriminately affectionate.” The tight control she’d been exercising over her expression became evident only when her face relaxed in a smile as she looked at the animal. The dog proved the truth of her words by licking Trey’s hand with enthusiasm.

She took the chair Trey had indicated, and the dog sat obediently next to her. “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.” The reserve had returned.

“No problem,” he said easily. “Tell me what I can do to help you. Robert McKinley didn’t say much, just that you needed an attorney here in town.”

“Yes.” She frowned, studying him so seriously that he began to wonder if he had something on his face.

When she didn’t continue, he raised an eyebrow. “I’m not what you were looking for?”

A flicker of annoyance crossed her face. “I expected you to be older.”

“Sorry I can’t oblige.” If that sounded flippant, too bad. The woman’s attitude didn’t bode well for their relationship.

But her lips twitched, and she looked human again. “Sorry. I just assumed a friend of Robert’s would be around his age. And this is...rather complicated. I’m not sure you can help me.”

“We’ll never know unless you tell me what it’s about, will we?”

Amanda Curtiss was actually quite attractive when she relaxed her guard for a moment, with those mobile lips and long, slim legs. Not that he ought to be noticing anything of the kind about a client. Oddly enough, there was something vaguely familiar in the oval face and regular features, but he couldn’t place it.

“No.” She paused, as if not sure how to begin. “This situation arose when my mother died a few weeks ago.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Maybe that explained the air she had of holding a tight guard on her emotions.

Amanda nodded, accepting the words of condolence. She’d probably heard them often recently. She couldn’t be more than about thirty herself, so her mother had apparently died young.

“She had been caught in the cross fire of what the police thought was gang violence. In the course of the postmortem, it was determined that she’d never given birth to a child.” She met his gaze briefly and then looked away. “Robert and I assumed I was adopted, but we couldn’t find adoption papers anywhere. He’s started a search through court records, but without knowing where or when, it seems impossible to trace.”

Trey tried to imagine himself in that situation and ran up against a blank wall. He couldn’t even begin to think what it must be like. His family roots went deep here in Echo Falls, where everyone knew everything going back several generations. “But you must have a birth certificate.”

“I have a baptismal certificate from a church outside Boston that appears genuine, but that’s when I was three. What we thought was a birth certificate was actually a hospital form, not a state-registered certificate. And no such birth actually occurred at that hospital on that date.”

Trey frowned, caught up in the story in spite of himself. “Your mother must have been very determined to wipe out traces of who you really were. If she were desperate to have a child...”

“No. If you’re thinking she took me because she was mentally unbalanced...well, you never knew my mother. That’s not something she would do.”

He’d reserve judgment on that one. Children weren’t always the best judge of what their parents would do. Come to think of it, that worked the other way around, too.

“So you’ve run into a lot of blind alleys. But what brought you to Echo Falls?”

She hesitated, and for a moment he actually thought she was going to call the whole thing off, say goodbye, send me a bill and walk away. But instead she took something from her bag and handed it to him.

“Do you recognize that?”

It was a photograph of what seemed to be a painting.

The subject was familiar to him. “That’s Echo Falls.” He studied it closely. “But I’ve never seen that painting of the falls.”

“My mother painted it. She was Juliet Curtiss. I don’t know if you’re familiar...”

“Yes, of course. I read the account of her death somewhere.” That shed a bit more light on things. Juliet Curtiss most likely had a considerable estate to leave her heir, which was now in doubt. On the other hand, if the woman thought the painting would lead her to answers about her parentage...

“This is a photo of the words on the back of the painting. I enlarged it to make it more readable.”

He read the short line of printing, struggling to make sense of it. “It sounds as if your mother did the painting as a tribute to a friend, but that doesn’t mean there’s a connection to you.”

“It’s a memorial, so it’s logical to assume that the date on it was the date when this person died.”

He nodded. “M. I’m with you, but...”

“The date is two months after I was born.” She seemed to think that made everything clear. It didn’t.

“Even so,” he began.

“You think I’m imagining a connection that isn’t there.” Her face flamed with sudden anger.

“I think you’re building a great deal on a slim chance. If I thought I could help you...”

“Never mind.” She held out her hand for the photos. “Robert suggested I see you rather than a private investigator, both because he trusts you and because as a local attorney, you’re more likely to know what to search for. Maybe I’ll do better looking into the situation on my own.”

Annoyed, he held the photos out of reach. “Hold on. I didn’t say I wouldn’t try. I just don’t know that I can come up with the answers you want.”

“I want the truth.” Her tone was uncompromising.

“Good. So do I. Now we have common ground, at least. May I hold on to these?”

“Why?” She shot the word at him.

“Well, mainly because I was four years old in 1989. I’d like to show them to someone who might remember something from that year.”

She frowned. “I assume you have a copier in the office. Suppose you keep a copy.”

Trey nodded. “We can do that on the way out. Now, where are you staying?”

“At a motel down near Williamsport. It was the closest place I could find that would allow dogs.”

“Let me have your cell number, then. I’ll call you if I find anything.” He hesitated, but it ought to be said. “In the meantime, it probably would be best if you didn’t start investigating this in Echo Falls yourself.”

“Why not?” She was instantly defensive.

“It’s a small town. And like most small towns, people don’t like outsiders poking around asking questions.” He could see by her expression that she didn’t understand. Obviously she’d never lived in a place like Echo Falls.

“I’ll think about what you said.” She stood, and the dog lumbered to his feet, his nap interrupted. She handed Trey a card with the number he’d requested. It also identified her as Dr. Amanda Curtiss, DVM. A vet. He’d never have guessed that, but it seemed to explain that air of competence.

Trey rounded the desk to join her. “Meaning you’ll follow your own instincts?”

That seemed to break through her guard for an instant, and she smiled. “I suppose so.”

“Tell me something.” He opened the door for her. “Did Robert McKinley approve of this investigation of yours?”

“Probably not. But I told him, and I’ll tell you.” There was a fierce quality to her determination that he hadn’t seen before. “I intend to know the truth. I’m going to find out who I am, no matter who stands in the way.”

He tried for a noncommittal expression. “That’s your right.” He wished he could say it was wise, but he couldn’t. For no reason that he could put his finger on, he had the feeling that Amanda Curtiss’s quest could land her in a big bunch of trouble. And him with her, if he let himself be sucked in.

CHAPTER TWO

WHEN AMANDA REACHED the sidewalk a few minutes later she paused, considering. That appointment hadn’t gone as badly as it might have, she supposed. She’d almost become accustomed to the series of disturbing events that had turned her life upside down, right up until she’d tried to verbalize them to a stranger. If the story sounded off-the-wall to her, she could imagine how it had sounded to that attorney.

To do him justice, Alter hadn’t escorted her politely to the door and suggested she consult a mental health professional. Maybe he was a bit too staid and reserved, despite his age, for such an act.

Barney pressed against her leg as if to ask why they were standing irresolute on the sidewalk. “Walk, Barney?”

A wave of the tail answered her. Barney was too well trained to give his usual ecstatic bark in public, but there was no denying a walk would suit him fine. And it made a good excuse to have a look at the place that had seemed to hold such significance to her mother.

To Juliet Curtiss, she corrected, starting down the sidewalk away from the law office. Was she ever going to get used to the idea that she wasn’t Juliet’s biological daughter?

Juliet had seen her as a daughter. Hadn’t she said so plainly in her will? That was the important thing, Robert had told her over and over in the past two weeks. He’d been distressed by what he saw as Amanda’s obsession with finding out who she was and where she’d come from.

And as her attorney, he’d been firmly opposed to her leaving Boston at all. “Stay in residence at the brownstone” had been his repeated refrain. That way, if Juliet’s brother did get a hint of any irregularity, he’d have much more difficulty in getting her out.

Amanda couldn’t do it. She couldn’t live her life cautious and afraid. It would have been a betrayal of the way Juliet had raised her. Juliet Curtiss had taken her own course all her life, and she’d taught Amanda to do the same.

Robert had been sympathetic, but he hadn’t understood. As for the attorney he’d sent her to...well, Alter didn’t understand, either. He clearly wanted her to do nothing except, possibly, go away.

Had he been right about the people here and their attitude toward outsiders? So far as she could tell, Echo Falls inhabitants appeared friendly. Instead of the usual eyes averted posture of a busy city, most people she passed here gave her a pleasant smile or a nod.

The main street of Echo Falls was lined on either side by small shops and offices. A gift shop, a bank, a bookstore...she checked them off as she passed. Ahead of her was the town square, with a small plot of grass, a fountain and a memorial to someone or other. The redbrick buildings around it looked solidly turn of the century. Another bank anchored one corner, while the town hall and the public library accounted for two more. The last was occupied by the local newspaper.

A library and a newspaper office were two of the first places she’d thought to check for information. It was tempting to go in now, but Barney probably wouldn’t be welcome, and her stomach informed her it was long past lunchtime.

With a longing glance at the library, Amanda turned back the way she’d come. Noticing a bakery-café across the street, she put Barney in the car, cracked the window a couple of inches and headed in search of lunch.

Several people were coming out of Beiler’s Café as she reached it. Judging by the quiet interior, she must have missed the lunch rush, if there was such a thing in a town this size.

The pleasant-faced woman behind the counter waved her to a table. “Wilkom. Will you have coffee?”

“Yes, please.” The fact that the woman was Amish surprised her. She’d grown accustomed to seeing the Amish when she’d done her veterinary training in Pennsylvania, but somehow she hadn’t expected to find an Amish settlement this far north in the state.

A steaming mug appeared first, followed quickly by a menu. “Lunch, or maybe a cruller to go with the coffee?” The woman’s smile widened. “I’m Esther... Esther Beiler. And you are a visitor, ain’t so?”

Amanda relaxed, whatever tension she’d held on to evaporating at the woman’s friendliness. “That’s right. I haven’t been to this part of Pennsylvania before. You have such a pretty downtown area.” True enough, and it occurred to her that she should seize the opportunity to chat when offered.

“Ach, it’s not so bad,” Esther acknowledged. “I think the valley is at its best in the fall, when the ridges have so much color. It’s already close to the peak, I think. We get a fair number of tourists coming through on weekends.”

Nodding, Amanda scanned the menu. “What do you recommend?”

“Chicken potpie is most popular. I have homemade vegetable beef soup, too, and it’s not so bad.”

Deciding that “not so bad” was high praise, Amanda opted for the vegetable beef soup. As the woman headed back toward the kitchen, Amanda noticed tourist brochures on a rack inside the door. She picked up one to look at while waiting. Her preliminary research had told her that the actual falls for which the community was named was a couple of miles away. She was eyeing a sketch map in the brochure doubtfully when Esther returned with the soup and a basket of rolls that smelled fresh from the oven.

“You’re interested in the falls, yah?” Esther seemed to have no inhibitions about looking over Amanda’s shoulder.

“I’d like to see them, yes.” She couldn’t expect that looking at the falls would tell her anything about why her mother had painted them, but somehow she had to see for herself. “But this map...”

“That’s for pretty, not for finding your way.” Esther dismissed the tourist brochure. “Best if you have someone take you there the first time. It’s not an easy walk.”

“Walk?”

“Yah. You can park not too far away, but you’ll need to walk through the woods.” Esther gestured toward the street. “I saw you coming out of the law office. Trey could take you. Or was it Jason Glassman you came to see?”

The firm was Alter and Glassman. Obviously news spread fast here. “Trey?” she questioned.

“Theodore James Alter.” Esther’s smile widened. “His father and grandfather had the same name, so everyone calls him Trey.”

Amanda stowed that information away. Obviously Alter was well-known here. Whether that would help her or not, she didn’t know.

“I had some business with the office. I don’t know Mr. Alter socially.” And the idea of having him along when she went to the falls didn’t appeal. “I saw a painting of the falls once,” she added. If Esther knew everything that went on in town, she might have been aware of Juliet’s visit, although there didn’t seem much chance she’d remember it after all these years.

“A painting. Think of that, now. I’ve seen lots of photographs of the falls, but never a painting.” She shrugged. “Funny, that is, but people have kind of odd feelings about the falls.”

“Odd?” Amanda had her own reasons for mixed emotions about the falls, but...

“Lots of superstitions, you know.” Esther seemed vaguely uneasy. “I don’t put much stock in those old stories myself.”

“What kind of old stories?” She asked the question around a spoonful of vegetable soup, rich with tender beef chunks.

Esther frowned, brushing her palms down the front of her white apron. “Ach, old Indian tales and the like.” She hesitated. “There’s one that says you should never climb up the trail by the falls alone. Seems if you do...”

The pause might have been for effect, but Amanda suspected the woman’s hesitation was genuine enough. “Yes?”

“They say if you do, you’ll hear something following you. Coming after you. All you can hear is the rushing water and the footsteps behind you.”

Esther’s rosy face had lost some of its color. She wasn’t putting this on to entertain the tourist. Suddenly she flicked her apron, as if shaking something off it.

“Ach, that’s all nonsense, probably made up to keep kids away. I don’t believe a word of it.”

Amanda didn’t, either, of course. She was far too sensible to be frightened by ghost stories.

But the words lingered in her mind like a cobweb clinging to her fingers, impossible to shake away.

* * *

“SO HOW DID the appointment with the new client go?” Jason Glassman, Trey’s law partner, tossed some mail on Trey’s desk. “Anything there?”

Trey shrugged. “Doubtful.” He and Jason had spent plenty of hours trying to rebuild the firm in the past few months, and he didn’t think Amanda Curtiss’s wild-goose chase was going to help them.

“Don’t tell me your big-shot Boston friend sent you someone who doesn’t have a case.”

“Worse.” He frowned. “At least, I think it’s worse. It’s either going to be time wasted on nothing at all, or it’s going to be something...”

“What?”

“I’m not sure.” He couldn’t rid himself of the feeling that if there was any substance to Amanda’s story, it would lead to a messy situation that wouldn’t do the firm or himself any good.

Jason was waiting patiently for an answer, something that showed how much he’d changed since he’d arrived in Echo Falls last spring. Then, patience hadn’t been part of his vocabulary. Credit his recent engagement for that, Trey supposed.

“It’s too soon to say whether there’s anything to it or not. I’ll let you know once...” The sentence trailed off as he glanced out the window. There, on the opposite side of the street, was Amanda Curtiss, apparently having a heart-to-heart with Esther Beiler in front of the coffee shop.

If Amanda was looking for town gossip, she’d somehow landed right in the spot where the latest news was shared, embellished and passed on. Even as he watched, Esther pointed at the ridge, clearly showing Amanda the location of the falls.

“I’ll catch you up on it later,” he said, and hurried for the door.

Trey dodged an older model pickup coming down the street at a snail’s pace and reached the sidewalk to find Esther Beiler beaming at him.

“Ach, Trey, you’re chust in time. I was telling your friend that she’d best have you go with her up to the falls, ain’t so?”

His friend? He’d have to let that go with Esther’s curious gaze fixed on him. “Sure thing. I’d be glad to take her.”

He turned to Amanda, trying to keep a smile on his face. “If you’re ready, I’ll walk back to the car with you. We’ll set up a time to go.”

Amanda evaded his glance. Thanking Esther, she stepped off the curb. But any plans she might have to avoid talking to him were foiled as she had to pause for an Amish buggy to roll slowly past.

Trey raised his hand to Eli Miller and his oldest boy, probably headed to the hardware store, and then touched Amanda’s elbow to guide her across the street as if she were his elderly grandmother.

She glared at him, shaking her arm free. “I can walk across the street on my own, thank you. And there’s no need to take me to the falls. Esther gave me very good directions.”

“I’ll bet.” His lips quirked. “I’ve heard Esther’s idea of directions. ‘Go down the Pauley Road until you come to where Stoltzfus’s barn used to be before they built the new one...’”

Amanda preserved the glare for another second before her lips curved in a smile that showed a dimple at the upper corner. “They were something like that, I have to say. But really, there’s no need for me to take you away from your work. Just tell me something I can put into the GPS.”

“I doubt if there is an address it would recognize.” Besides, keeping an eye on Amanda Curtiss seemed like a good idea, if not a full-time job. “Tell you what. I’ll meet you tomorrow and take you up there. Okay?”

“Why not now?” Her eyebrows lifted.

“First, because you’re not dressed for a hike.” He nodded toward her suede boots and light wool slacks. “And neither am I. Second, because that will give me a chance to look for some of the answers you want.”

She studied him, as if wondering whether he was stalling. “You think you’ll be able to find something that quickly?”

“If there was a death that was somehow connected to the falls in 1989, I’m sure my dad would know about it. And he can be trusted not to spread your story all over town.”

“That’s really worrying you, isn’t it? I don’t see why.”

They’d reached the car by then, and he put a hand on the door when she would have opened it. In an instant the dog had sprung to the window, baring a formidable set of teeth.

“Nice to know you’re so well-protected,” he commented, moving his hand away from the glass. “This is a small town.”

“You said that before,” she pointed out. “I still don’t see why anyone would be interested in why I’m here.”

“You don’t know a town like this. Esther will be talking about you to the next person who comes into the café. Not maliciously, you understand. Just sharing. And that person will mention you to someone else.”

Amanda’s firm jaw set stubbornly. “I’m not hiding anything.”

“Then you’re not thinking it through.” He resisted the urge to raise his voice and glanced around, but no one was within earshot. “From what you told me, you obviously think there’s a good chance your birth mother was connected with Echo Falls. People here are old-fashioned. Do you think they’ll welcome someone stirring up what might have been an old scandal? Or sharing their private family secrets with the world?”

Her clear blue eyes seemed to darken. “You think I’m an illegitimate child no one will want to claim.”

“That’s not what I think. I think you’re building too much on something that probably has no relationship to your parentage. I get it, really. It must have been an enormous shock to be faced with that news so soon after your mother’s death.”

For a moment he thought she’d argue with him. Then she seemed to swallow whatever it was she’d almost said. “You’re sure you’ll be able to find out something by tomorrow?”

“If there’s anything to find, I will. If my father doesn’t know, someone else will, but I’m betting he’d remember anything that dramatic.” He tried to read her expression and found it impossible. “So, what do you say? I’ll meet you at the office tomorrow at ten, and I’ll bring the insect repellent. You wear something you can walk in the woods in. Okay?”

She hesitated for so long he thought she was going to turn him down. Finally, she nodded. “Okay.” Her expression softened. “Look, I know I’m not going to find anything there. I just... I need to see the place.”

“I get it.” To his surprise, he actually did. It was a connection to the woman she’d always thought was her mother. “In the meantime, could you refrain from going around town asking questions?”

“I’ll consider it.” A smile took the sting from the words. “Until tomorrow, then. And thanks...” She hesitated. “Trey.”