Cursed Romance

by Raven Snow

  The scent of pot and the previous night’s bonfire was on the air. Rowen wrinkled her nose as she drew closer to where a dozen or so people were gathered. A few of them were dozing. A couple was naked, sunbathing. Still more were passing around a joint and conversing among themselves. They glanced up when Rowen walked past. She was heading for a small shack not far away. That was where she had found Jeff the last time she had visited. She made it to the door and knocked. It took a few more knocks to get someone to answer. No doubt Jeff was still sleeping last night off behind the door.

  “Come in,” said a man’s voice, probably Jeff.

  Rowen pushed the door open, not sure she wanted to see what was on the other side but willing to put up with it in order to figure out what was going on. “Jeff?” she ventured.

  “In the flesh.” Jeff was indeed “in the flesh,” so to speak. Rowen really shouldn’t have been surprised. The last time she had barged in on him here he had also been naked.

  Rowen looked long enough to register that he was lounged back on a sleeping bag with a similarly naked, sleeping young woman before she averted her gaze. “Do you have a minute to talk?”

  Jeff yawned. “Maybe. Who is it I’m talking to?”

  “Rowen Greensmith.”

  “Ah! Tiffany’s kid! Yeah, cool. Come on in. Take a seat.”

  “No thanks.” Rowen wanted some answers, but she didn’t want them that badly. “I’ll meet you around back, if that’s all right. Please, throw on some clothes.”

  From the corner of her eye, Rowen saw Jeff shake his head. “Telling me what to do and wear on my own property. Uncool. Very, uncool.”

  Rowen didn’t much care about being cool. “I’ll be around back.” She left the shack and went around to stand on the other side of it. She hated this place. It made her feel unclean—and that wasn’t just because there might be a dead body around somewhere.

  “Is Rory still with us?” asked Eric. He looked about as uncomfortable as Rowen felt. This wasn’t his kind of place either.

  Of course I’m still here, said Rory. Where else am I going to go?

  “He’s still here,” said Rowen, acting as translator. “Do you know where your body might be?”

  No.

  “Do you know where it was you were relieving yourself last night? That would probably be a good first place to check.”

  Rory didn’t respond at first.

  I’m not sure where I was, he admitted, finally. I just wandered away from the bonfire and into the woods really quick. The fire was bright. It’s not like it would have been hard to find my way back.

  Well, that complicated things some. “Take a look around, and come back to us,” Rowen instructed. “You should be able to sense your body if it’s anywhere around here. Let us know if you find it, all right?”

  All right. Rory didn’t sound thrilled by those instructions. He didn’t like this. It was hard to blame him. It was a pretty bad situation all around.

  Jeff came strolling around the building. He looked about how Rowen had remembered him. He was a big guy with long brown hair that hung greasily around his face. The only piece of clothing he had put on was a pair of tattered blue jeans. He stopped in front of Rowen, shirtless and barefoot. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  “We’re looking for a couple of missing people,” said Rowen, figuring she might as well ask after Andrea while they were here. This was a party location that she hadn’t thought to check after all. Apparently, some younger folks had made their way here after the party in the trailer park the night before. It stood to reason that Andrea might have come here.

  “Well, a lot of people come through here,” Jeff said with a smile. “Can’t say that I get to meet them all. Not for a lack of trying, though! Got a name or a picture?”

  Rowen looked at Eric. He had brought a photo of Andrea from his glove compartment. He showed it to Jeff now. “Her parents have been looking for her for about a week now,” he said as Jeff took the picture.

  “Hmm.” The sound Jeff made was noncommittal. “She’s pretty. Don’t think I’ve seen her around, though. Mind if I hold on to this? I can ask around, see if anyone else has seen her.”

  Eric nodded. “Please,” he said.

  “Who else?” asked Jeff. “You said there were a couple of people you were looking for.”

  “Yeah, my… my stepfather.” Rowen had already pulled her phone from her purse. She didn’t have a great picture of Rory handy, but she did have him in a shot she had taken of the whole family. She showed this to Jeff. “He’s the tall, skinny guy. Right there.” She pointed to Rory standing right next to Tiffany.

  “Tif married?” Jeff’s eyes widened. “Well, I’ll be. I can’t believe she didn’t tell me! Is she in town?”

  “For the moment, yeah.”

  “And she hasn’t come by to see us?” Jeff shook his head. “What a shame.” He handed the phone back to Rowen. “I’m not sure I’ve seen him around either. Then again, I don’t pay much attention to the fellas. You know what I mean?” He gave Rowen a wink.

  “No,” Rowen said plainly, even though she did. “Care if we ask around?”

  Jeff shrugged. “It’s a free country. Do what you want.”

  “Thanks.” Rowen walked away from Jeff and back toward the blackened remains of last night’s bonfire. She was more interested in asking Rory if he had found his body than she was in asking others if they had seen him. “Rory,” she called. “Rory, can you hear me?”

  Rory didn’t answer at first. Rowen began to fear she had lost track of him. She was about to tell Eric as much when he finally answered her. His energy felt heavy, miserable. I think I found it, he said. I think I found my body.

  Rowen shot a look at Eric. He sighed, gathering what she meant by that. “Lead the way,” he said.

  “Can you show me where it is?” asked Rowen.

  This way. Rory moved toward the edge of the woods. Rowen followed his energy into them. They walked for a ways, plenty far enough away from the bonfire for him to have been murdered without anyone hearing.

  Here’s where I last remember being, he said as Rowen and Eric passed a large oak.

  And down there is where I am now.

  “Down there” was the bottom of a steep hill. Getting to the bottom was pretty perilous work. Rowen took the descent slowly. She mostly slid down, upsetting some gravel on the way. Eric lost his footing and swore when he landed hard on his backside. “You okay?” asked Rowen.

  “More or less,” Eric grumbled. “Better than Rory from the sound of it.”

  “Too soon,” Rowen warned. They hadn’t even found the body yet, after all. Not that it was difficult to find the body from there. Rory pointed out a pile of rocks. The pile definitely wasn’t one that appeared to be naturally occurring. The rocks had been piled where they were for the express purpose of hiding a body. Rowen only had to pull a couple away to uncover Rory’s face. Her heart sank. Up until this moment, she had been holding out hope that he was actually alive. She hadn’t even realized that’s what she was doing, but there it was. “We have to call the cops,” she said with a sigh.

  Eric nodded. He pulled out his own phone and frowned at the screen. “No bars.”

  Rowen looked at her own phone. “I’m not getting a signal either.” She remembered from the last time they had been here that the cellphone reception was patchy. They would have to go back to their car and maybe even a little further down the road before they could make an outgoing call.

  “You go on,” said Eric. “I’ll wait with the body. Make sure no one tampers with it further or anything.”

  “No way. The murderer could still be around. If he could take down Rory, he could take you down too.” It wasn’t like Rory had been a small guy. Rowen wasn’t putting her husband in any unnecessary danger.

  “I’ll be fine,” Eric assured her. “I’m sober and paying attention. No one is going to catch me unaware.”

  “I’m not leaving without you,” Rowen insisted.
“Rory can stay here with his body. Can’t you, Rory?”

  I can, Rory answered, miserable.

  Rowen bit her bottom lip. It felt like she should say something, but what was there to say? “I’m sorry this happened to you,” she managed at last. “We’ll catch whoever did this. I promise. We always do.”

  All right, said Rory, like catching the perpetrator didn’t matter all that much. Maybe it didn’t once you were dead. It wasn’t like catching the person responsible was going to reverse anything.

  “We’ll be back,” Rowen assured Rory. She headed back up the hill. It was even more difficult going up. She had to drop down on all fours a couple of times. It left red dirt stains on her favorite comfy jeans.

  “Who do you think could have killed him?” Eric asked, once they were up the hill and walking back toward the bonfire.

  “I don’t know,” Rowen admitted. “He doesn’t really know anyone in town outside of our family. I can’t think of anyone who would have a motive. I doubt it was personal.”

  “More likely he saw something he wasn’t supposed to. Wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Rowen nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. Of course, if that’s the case, they killed him for no reason. It doesn’t sound like he actually saw anything last night. Either that or he wasn’t sober enough to remember.”

  Eric shook his head. “This sucks.”

  “You’re telling me.” Rowen groaned. “What am I going to say to my mom?”

  “Let’s just take this one step at a time. First we have to call the cops.”

  “The cops?” The question came from Jeff. He was standing at the edge of the woods, his hands in his pockets. “Why are you calling the cops?”

  It took Rowen a few seconds to come up with the words. “We found a body.”

  “What?” Jeff looked from Rowen to Eric, like he might say different. “Whose body?”

  “Rory,” said Rowen. “From the picture we showed you.”

  “Tiffany’s husband?” Jeff shook his head. “No way. God, she doesn’t deserve this.”

  “Keep everyone away from the woods, if you can,” said Eric. “We have to see if we can’t get signal somewhere closer to the main road.”

  Jeff nodded. “Yeah. Of course.”

  ***

  They had to back up all the way down the dirt road and park on the side of the nearest paved area before either of them got a single bar on their phone. Rowen agonized over who to call. In the end, she just decided to call the cops directly. Why worry Ben with stuff like this? It would just work him up. Rose certainly wouldn’t thank her for it. It wasn’t like him coming out here would do anyone any good.

  Rowen told everything to the 911 operator. She gave them the address, and they told her it might be a little while before they could get anyone out there. It was quite a drive, after all. It stood so apart from everything else. “We should get back to the crime scene,” Rowen said after she had hung up. “We should make sure no one tampers with it.”

  Eric nodded in agreement. He started the car and was about to pull out onto the road when a car flew past them. “What the—” he began, turning when a second car flew past.

  “You have to be kidding me.” Rowen swore. There was a steady stream of cars coming off the dirt road and onto the highway. It was obvious what had happened. Word that the cops were on their way had spread, and now everyone was getting out of there as fast as they possibly could.

  Eric grabbed his pad and paper from the glove box. He started copying down license plates as fast as he was able. That wasn’t very fast, unfortunately. All he got for his trouble was a bunch of partials. “Jeff told them.” He kicked the floorboard. “I knew I should have stayed behind.”

  “I’m not sure you could have stopped this,” Rowen offered, because it was true. “All it would take was Jeff blurting out that the cops were coming once.” They really should have seen this coming.

  ***

  It took the police ages to arrive. By the time they had, Rowen was sure everyone who had been at the bonfire was long gone. Rowen’s car was the only one parked there. She wasn’t sure where Jeff had gotten off to—possibly back inside his little shack of a house to try and look more presentable and sober. Rowen wasn’t sure he was capable of not smelling like weed.

  The police finally pulled in behind Rowen’s car. A couple of officers got out. Rowen recognized both, vaguely. She was fairly certain their names were Powell and Leeson. She only knew this because they were officers she tended to avoid. Neither of them much liked the Greensmiths. Rowen couldn’t afford to be picky right now, though. The situation was a fairly serious one.

  Rowen and Eric got back out of their car and approached the officers. Powell noticed her first and frowned. He was a heavyset man with a bushy brown mustache. “You the one who called this in?”

  Rowen nodded. “Yeah… Are there more of you on their way? A coroner or anything?”

  “Let us worry about that,” said Leeson. He was reed thin and at least a head taller than Powell. “Show us this body you found.”

  Rowen didn’t like the tone of voice either of them were using. They talked like she was making all this up, like she had some reason to lie about what she had found. “Fine. This way.” Rowen led them past Jeff’s shack. He still hadn’t come out. Rowen thought about pointing out that the owner of the place was in there, but that would probably only slow this down. Rowen wasn’t sure she had it in her to wait around while they tried to coax Jeff out of his shack. She headed into the woods instead, taking the officers all the way to the steep hill.

  Leeson looked down the hill and swore. Whether he was swearing at the sight of a body or at the steep hill between him and it was hard to say. He began his descent, taking it slow but ultimately tripping and sliding half the way down on his rear end. He swore again.

  “You okay?” called Powell.

  “Yeah,” Leeson called back. “We gotta call this in though. This is definitely some kind of crime scene. Someone was trying to hide this guy.”

  “I was pretty sure I communicated how serious this was when I called,” Rowen grumbled.

  Powell ignored her. “All right. Stay with the body. I’m headed back to the car.”

  ***

  It was another half hour after that before more law enforcement arrived. At least enough arrived this time, though. Maybe too many. The whole place was crawling with cops and detectives and forensics. It made Rowen wonder who was watching over the rest of Lainswich. Even Ben had caught wind of the whole thing. He was there too, unfortunately. It was in an unofficial capacity, but his men still listened to him. Rose was there too. She was standing around annoyed—or at least she had been until she found out whose body it was that had been discovered.

  “Have you told your mother yet?” asked Rose, standing at Rowen’s car with her.

  “Not yet.” Rowen still wasn’t sure what she was going to say. “Maybe I’ll tell Nadine or your mom first. Do you think they would be any better at breaking the news to her?”

  Rose shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I don’t think I would trust the job just to my mom. You said Rory was still around though, right? Do you think he can maybe break the news to her himself?”

  “I haven’t felt him around for a while.” Rowen wasn’t sure where he had gotten off to. Either he had moved on or he needed some time for himself to process all of this. Rowen thought it was the latter, but she couldn’t be sure. “I’m not sure he’d be up for it, and she should probably know sooner rather than later. The last time we talked, she was already really worried about him. She probably senses something is wrong. The not knowing has to be pretty bad, especially when the only news there is to update her with is monumentally bad news.” Rowen groaned and leaned back against the driver’s side door. “This sucks.” That was really an understatement.

  “I can come with you when you tell her. The family should really be there, you know? To support her. I can call my mom and ask
her to meet up with us somewhere. We’ll sit your mom down back at the house.”

  Rowen nodded. She supposed that sounded like as good a plan as any. “All right.”

  “Hey.” Eric interrupted the conversation Rowen was having with her cousin. He had been standing as close as the police tape would allow. Rowen had been with him at first, but the flashing lights had started giving her a headache. It looked like Eric had heard something interesting that he wanted to pass on to his wife. Rowen was afraid to ask what. “I think they might have found another body.”

  Yep, this was definitely news that Rowen wasn’t thrilled to hear. “What?” she asked, looking in the direction of the flashing lights. “Who is it?”

  Eric raised his shoulders in a shrug. “I’m not sure. I didn’t hear much.” The fact that he had an idea of who it might be was written plain on his face.

  “Do you think it’s Andrea?” asked Rowen. It was the first thought that had sprung to her mind.

  Eric winced, indicating that was something that had occurred to him as well. “I hope not.”

  Together, Rowen, Eric and Rose all walked back to the car Ben was seated in. He was on the passenger side, staring past the police tape with a scowl etched into those normally handsome features of his. He was so transfixed he didn’t even hear Rowen and the others approach. “Hey,” said Rowen, making Ben jump. It made her jump too. She had never startled him before.

  “He’s on painkillers,” Rose said, like his lack of alertness needed explaining.

  Ben glared at his wife. That was evidently information he hadn’t wanted shared. “Not by choice.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. “No, because only a sane person would take them by choice after getting shot and you’re certainly not that.”

  Ben ignored her, turning his attention instead to Rowen. “Is there something you need?”