Dead by Sunrise

by Richard Ryker

  “What happened at the sea stack?” Brandon asked.

  “We drank a few. Lauren showed me the teeth she’d stolen from Ruby. Everything was a big joke to Lauren. I got more and more pissed the longer we sat there.”

  How many homicide cases had he been involved in over the years where the difference between life and death was a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

  If Lauren hadn’t gone into town, hadn’t returned with more beer and hadn’t gone out to the sea stack—she might be alive today, despite Brooke’s rage.

  “You confronted her about what she did with Justin?” Jackson asked.

  “I told her I knew what she did. I thought she would deny it, but that bitch said, yeah, sorry. I couldn’t help myself.”

  Behind the tears forming in Brookes eyes there burned a fierce hatred for Lauren.

  “And then?” Brandon asked.

  “I slapped her. Not that hard. I would have left after that, but she pushed me.”

  Would Brooke claim self-defense? Too much about this case that pointed toward premeditated murder.

  “And you had to defend yourself?” Jackson asked. Normally, Brandon would object to Jackson putting those words in Brooke’s mouth, essentially giving her a way out. But the evidence for murder, at the very least a cover up, was so strong, he stayed silent.

  “Right. We fought, and then, she was gone. Off the side of the rock.”

  “So, you were fighting and she fell off,” Jackson said. “You sure you didn’t push her? You were angry—”

  “She fell…I don’t know.”

  “And then you tried to help her?”

  “I climbed down, checked on her. She didn’t say anything.”

  Brooke put her head in her hands. They let her compose herself.

  “How did you get her into the water?” Brandon asked.

  She didn’t look up at them. “Justin helped me.”

  Brandon thought back to one of his interviews with Justin. The kid had been most concerned about Brooke leaving him because of his tryst with Lauren. Despite his infidelity, he was willing to participate in covering up a murder just to keep Brooke happy.

  “Okay,” Brandon said, practicing his best good-cop voice. “We really appreciate your honesty.”

  Brooke lifted her head, searching Brandon’s eyes. “Am I going to go to jail for the rest of my life?”

  If I have anything to do with it, yes.

  “That’s up to the judge and jury. But I can tell you that the more truthful you are with us, the better it will be for you.”

  She nodded.

  “If Justin helped you get rid of Lauren’s body, he must have known what happened at the rock.”

  “I told him it was an accident,” she said. “Because it was.”

  “Then why kill Justin?” Brandon asked, hoping the quick question would elicit an unpracticed, honest answer.

  “Because he was weak,” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “He freaked out, wanted to confess what he’d done, that he’d helped me. He thought you would find out what we did.”

  “You killed Justin because you believed he’d snitch on you?” Jackson asked.

  “I know what he was thinking. He’d leave me to rot in jail for murder and he’d make a deal with the cops.”

  She was probably right.

  More important, she’d confessed to killing Justin. Cold-blooded, premeditated murder. But some things didn’t fit.

  “The spray paint,” Brandon said.

  “That was Justin’s idea. He thought it would scare people, make them think it was one of those vampire freaks who killed Lauren.”

  “And the teeth?”

  “I took the fangs from Lauren after she died. I don’t know. It was just an idea.”

  “You bit Lauren and Justin to throw us off,” Brandon said. “So we’d think Ruby was the murderer.”

  She cast him a weak smile. “It worked. For a while.”

  “One more question,” Brandon said. “How’d you get Justin’s body up in that tree?”

  Strong as Brooke was, Brandon doubted she’d done it alone. In fact, he’d figured Adam must have helped her simply because of the effort involved lifting a young man Justin’s size.

  “Don’t forget,” Brandon reminded her. “We’ll have prints from anyone who touched that rope.”

  “I called my aunt Olivia, freaking out. She wasn’t involved.”

  “And planting the teeth in Ruby’s house?”

  “That was my idea.”

  Brandon wasn’t sure if she was covering for her aunt or not, but it didn’t matter whose idea it was. He had a long list of crimes with which to charge Olivia, too.

  Brandon waited in his office while Jackson took Brooke back to her cell.

  It gave Brandon a chance to think the case through one more time. They’d caught the killer. But he’d learned over the years that, even in success, there was often a lesson to be learned.

  He’d considered all of Lauren’s friends—including Brooke—suspects from the start. Had he missed something, some clue that could have identified Brooke as the killer before Justin’s death?

  He reminded himself, he was working against Brooke and Justin—both were complicit in the cover up around Lauren’s death. Not to mention Olivia, who had a direct line to the mayor.

  He wondered now—what would have been different had Justin went for help when Brooke told him what she’d done?

  He’d never know, because Brooke, Justin, and even Olivia had chosen deceit over the truth, the easy way out that always makes things so much harder in the end.

  Jackson returned, falling into the chair across from Brandon’s desk.

  “Thanks for your help in there,” Brandon said.

  “I think we make a good team,” she said.

  “Yeah, too bad there’s only one chief position.”

  “I’ll settle for lead detective.”

  Brandon smiled. “I’ll talk to the mayor about the budget. You never know. We may have saved her little Moonbeam Festival now that this case is solved. She won’t be happy about her Minister of Tourism, though. Either way, I’m glad you’re here.”

  “You know,” she said, “It’s hard to believe what people will do, all for a relationship. Even a bad one. I mean, Brooke could have left Justin and found someone else. Same for Adam, Lauren…all of them.”

  “People do what people do,” Brandon said.

  She rose an eyebrow. “You going to interpret that for me?”

  “We all have our patterns, our way of being. Maybe because we figure we’re not good enough, that we don’t deserve better. So we stay in the same bad relationships, over and over, until something breaks.”

  Jackson stood. “Well, it’s a good thing that for most of us, breaking doesn’t mean pushing someone off a cliff.”

  “Yes,” Brandon said, “that is a good thing.”

  Chapter 45

  Brandon checked in with his dad and asked if Emma could stay the night at his house. He agreed, and Brandon spent the rest of the evening piecing together the evidence and writing up a confession for Brooke to sign.

  He’d contact the prosecutor and, if he guessed right, Brooke would spend at least two decades in the women’s state penitentiary. Olivia’s case was more complicated, but they’d be pressing charges.

  A knock at his front door woke Brandon. He rolled over and checked his phone. Seven-thirty in the morning.

  He pulled a shirt on and opened the door.

  Misty. Again.

  “Did I wake you?”

  “No.”

  “I only have a minute,” she said, as if he’d been the one who came to her front door. At first, he thought she’d been crying, but then realized she wasn’t wearing any makeup.

  “There’s nothing for us to—”

  “I’m here to say goodbye,” she said.

  “You’re leaving?”

  “I was offered a promotion. Down in Aberdeen
.”

  She’d mentioned the possibility of moving for work. Aberdeen was almost two hours south of Forks.

  “Well,” Brandon said, his hand still on the door handle, “Congratulations.”

  Misty glanced back toward her house for a moment before turning to Brandon.

  “Tell Emma I’ll miss her.”

  His stomach dropped. Emma would be upset about Misty leaving. Then again, Emma didn’t know about Misty spilling information to Nolan.

  “I’ll let her know,” he said.

  “I’ll miss you too,” she said.

  Was she trying to make him feel bad for turning her away yesterday?

  It almost worked.

  Then, he remembered what she’d done, how she’d shared his doubts about the case with Nolan, and how those had ended up in the newspaper.

  It was more likely the result of her ignorance than any ill-will toward Brandon. But one thing was clear, she was still close to Nolan, an officer Brandon had fired. There would be a legal battle around his dismissal.

  He didn’t trust her, couldn’t trust after everything they’d been through—twenty years ago and the last two weeks.

  It was for the best that she was leaving. For now.

  “Do you forgive me, Brandon?”

  For what? The distant past or last week?

  “Yes,” he said.

  She slid the door open and Brandon let go of the handle. She tugged on his shirt, pulling him closer.

  “Good,” she said, pecking him on the lips.

  Then, she was gone, crossing the street with that confident sway that was both infuriating and captivating all at once. He should say something, let her know she couldn’t just put her lips on his. She didn’t own him…

  Let her go.

  You did it before, you can do it again.

  He closed the door, made himself an omelet and coffee and called Tori.

  For the next hour, he updated Tori on everything that had happened the last few days. How Emma had helped solve the case and how he and Will had captured Brooke and Adam.

  Tori had been trying to get ahold of Brandon after learning about Justin’s death on the Seattle news. He reassured her Emma was safe, but Tori wasn’t happy now that she’d learned about Emma’s involvement, helpful or not.

  It was strangely comforting, unloading his troubles on Tori. She’d been his best friend for most of his adult life, sure. She got Brandon in a way Misty never would. It was one of the tragedies of divorce—they’d gotten along better apart than when they were together. He hoped it stayed that way—for Emma’s sake, and his.

  In the morning, Brandon got dressed and stopped by Will’s house. He’d been stitched up at the hospital and sent home after a couple of hours. He was in good spirits, although Brandon had had a hard time making it past Will’s wife after she answered the door.

  She’d made it clear she wasn’t happy about Brandon taking an officer “Will’s age” out on a dangerous call.

  When she’d finally left Will and Brandon alone, Brandon said, “I should know better than asking you this here, but with Nolan gone—”

  “Are you seriously going to ask me to put off retirement…again?”

  Brandon had asked Will to stick around through the transition and until his replacement was hired. Technically, that had happened. Brandon was chief and Jackson would take Will’s position.

  Nolan would likely appeal his termination, and the union would no doubt back him. But based on the evidence against Nolan, from the shots-fired situation with Jackson to his admitted leaking info to the press, Brandon was pretty sure he’d remain just that, terminated.

  “I’m still down one officer.”

  “Yeah, sounds like a problem,” he said. “Your problem.”

  “I need someone like you on the team, Will.”

  “Like me?”

  “Your experience with the town, your—”

  “Ah, cut the crap. I’ll give you six months, not more. I’ve already made reservations for Christmas in Maui.”

  “Thanks, Will.”

  “I’m on desk duty for at least two weeks. Understood?”

  “Sounds fair,” Brandon said.

  “And, uh, I’d get out of here before my wife returns. Wait ‘til she hears I’m staying on the force…”

  Brandon hightailed it back to his SUV, a wide smile on his face. As much as he wanted to think he could do this on his own, he could use Will’s leadership in the office. Even though they didn’t always agree on everything, Will supported Brandon, and that’s what he needed right now.

  Chapter 46

  Later that day, Brandon held a press conference. Overnight, just about every television and radio news station from Seattle had descended on Forks. News rigs packed the police station parking lot. Except for the satellite antennas atop each vehicle, it looked like a food truck convention.

  Ted showed to the conference too, but his voice wasn’t to be heard over the questions of the more savvy—and diplomatic—big city reporters.

  Brandon let them know he’d obtained a signed confession from Brooke. He held back on some other details. He saved the mayor some heartburn—for now—by not mentioning her staff’s involvement in the coverup. The point was, the murderer was in custody. The graffiti and all the hype around the vampire culture had been a distraction.

  The town was safe now.

  The day after the news conference, the Forks Journal Extra included a page-two story about the department solving the local murder of two young out-of-towners. Page two—right next to a story about a former officer appealing his “unfair termination” from the Forks Police Department.

  The front-page headline? The mayor had heard from Tiffany Quick, author of the beloved Darklove Moonbeam series. Now that the murder case was solved, she deemed Forks safe after all.

  Brandon and the mayor had a heart to heart conversation about her over-involvement in the case. She’d apologized and promised to stay clear of police business. He wished he could believe her. To Brandon’s surprise, she didn’t seem to upset about losing her Minister of Tourism.

  “It’s not anything I can’t handle myself,” she’d said. “Save the taxpayers some money.”

  In other words, the Moonbeam Festival would continue as planned and all was well with the world again.

  Tuesday afternoon, Brandon was in the office working through his notes on the case when he decided he couldn’t wait to call Lisa any longer. He needed an update on the lab results. And offer an apology for standing her up Sunday night.

  “I was just about to call you,” Lisa said. “Brooke’s DNA was on two of the beer cans you found out at the beach. We have her prints on the shovel. Her aunt’s too. No luck on saliva from the neck bite.”

  “You’ve given the prosecutor plenty to work with. In case Brooke rescinds her confession.”

  “What’s going to happen to Ruby? From what I read in the local news, everyone was ready to toss her in prison.”

  “She’ll be arraigned and released on bail, pending the drug charges.”

  “You did the right thing. It would have been easy to charge her for Lauren’s murder, considering the early evidence.”

  Despite his dislike for Ruby—personally and because of her profession—he’d let the court know how she’d let them use her house to catch the murderer. In the meantime, he’d warn Ruby the minute she tried to sell anything in his jurisdiction, he’d make sure she stayed in jail next time.

  “Couldn’t have done it without your work on this case,” Brandon said. “I mean it.”

  “Just doing my job. Consistent, reliable me. So reliable maybe I’m boring.”

  He knew where she was going.

  “That’s not why I stood you up on Sunday.”

  He could hear the smile in her voice. “Prove it,” she said.

  “Okay—”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  “Never,” he said, smiling now too. “Give me this week to clear th
ings up around here. Then we’ll set something up. I’ll be there come hell or high water.”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  Brandon had just hung up when Sue appeared at his door.

  “She’s a nice young lady,” Sue said.

  He raised an eyebrow. “You listening in on my calls?”

  Sue crossed her arms. “Why would you accuse me of something like that? I was out here in the hallway waiting. I could have been rude and interrupted—”

  “Okay, I get it,” Brandon said. “What do you need?”

  “Do I have to have a reason to talk to my boss?”

  “You want an honest answer?” Brandon said.

  Sue cracked a smile. “I just need you to sign this leave slip. I’m on vacation next week.”

  “Again?”

  “Hey, you been here as long as me, you accrue vacation. Not my fault you young haven’t earned it yet.”

  She handed him the slip and he signed it.

  “Doing anything fun?”

  “Preparing food for about a thousand people. Other tribal nations, friends of our Tribe. You should come.”

  “You inviting me?”

  “Don’t act so daft. Of course I am,” she took a serious demeanor. “Chief.”

  “I’ll be there. Just give me the info.”

  Sue stopped in the doorway. “One more thing, chief.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’ve done good so far. Just remember, folks around here don’t do well with outsiders.”

  “Except I’m from here,” Brandon said.

  “You left. It takes a while for people to get over that. Anyway, I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Me too,” Brandon said.

  Sunday morning Brandon and Emma finally made it to church together. His dad was there too. For the moment, he let himself enjoy the sense of completion. His department had solved two murders—as a team. He had a long way to go toward being good at his job. He had the homicide stuff down. Being chief, that was another thing altogether.

  After the service, the town gathered at Tilicum Park for the unveiling of the Eli’s memorial.