by Raven Snow
“I heard they found another body.” Rowen came right out with it. “Is that true?”
Ben’s frown deepened. He looked back across the police tape almost accusingly. “Did someone tell you or did you overhear that?”
“Overheard it,” said Eric.
Ben shook his head. “I keep telling them to keep it down. See? This is why I can’t afford to take time off.” That last part he said to his wife.
Rose just crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t say that like it’s my fault. When you’re back on your feet, you can train them better. Hire an all new team. I don’t care. The police aren’t my responsibility. Keeping you safe from yourself is.”
Ben chose to ignore that. He looked back to Rowen instead. “Yeah. They found another body.”
“Do they know who it is?” Rowen asked, her heart already sinking in her chest. Even if it wasn’t Andrea, another body was hardly any kind of good news.”
“Not yet,” said Ben. He took a deep breath like there was more to add. “They… They didn’t find an entire body.”
“What does that mean?” asked Rowen, despite the answer being kind of obvious. She just had to ask.
“They found a hand.”
Rowen put a hand over her mouth. Nope. That wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean the person it came from is dead, does it?” asked Eric. “I mean you can cut off someone’s hand while they’re still alive.”
Ben nodded. “Yeah, but that feels pretty unlikely here. Given the state of the first body—” Ben caught himself here. He looked to Rowen. “I mean, Rory. I’m really sorry, Rowen.”
“It’s all right,” said Rowen, even though it really wasn’t. It wasn’t like she had known the guy that long, though. Mostly she was still just worried about telling her mom. “You were saying?”
“Right, well, given the state you found Rory in, I get the impression that whoever killed him was trying to dispose of this other body. Maybe he saw something he wasn’t supposed to. Either way, it looks like they were trying to keep Rory out of sight until they had managed to completely dispose of this first body they were dealing with.”
“So, Rory was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time?” asked Eric.
Again, Ben nodded. “Probably.”
“Do they know what the gender of the first body is?” Rowen didn’t want to ask this question either, but she needed to know.
Ben sighed. He had to know they were all thinking Andrea. “I haven’t seen it myself, but I hear it looks feminine. Small hand, thin fingers, pink nail polish. Looks young, too.”
Rowen winced. “So, it could be Andrea?”
“Could be.” Ben hesitated before continuing, “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but keep that piece of info to yourself for now. We haven’t made an ID yet.” Despite his words, he didn’t sound too optimistic that it wasn’t Andrea.
Chapter Eight
Breaking the bad news to Tiffany did not go well. Then again, it couldn’t possibly go “well.” It probably went about as positively as it could have. Rowen had taken Rose’s advice and broken the news to her aunts first. After that, they had all sat Tiffany down together and told her what had happened.
Rowen sat awkwardly on the sofa as her mother cried. At least she had Lydia and Nadine on either side of her. They hugged her and offered their sympathies. Rowen felt around for Rory’s presence, but she didn’t sense him. Maybe this was too awkward for him too.
Lydia made some tea to help Tiffany sleep. Rowen left for home as soon as her mother had retired to bed. Eric was waiting there for her. He had offered to come along when she broke the news to her mother, but Rowen had told him there was no point. Better they kept the crowd small when they told her, better he had a chance to think over this whole Andrea thing.
“You okay?” asked Eric, rising from the sofa and giving his wife a hug when she entered.
Rowen took a deep breath. “Not really.”
The day had been exhausting. She hugged her husband back before sinking onto the sofa with a heavy sigh. “Find anything out?”
“Well, Ben gave me a call.” Eric sat down beside his wife. He had all sorts of papers spread out over the coffee table in front of them. His laptop sat atop it all, several tabs worth of social media pages open.
“And?” Rowen asked, even though she really didn’t want to know this time. She wasn’t sure she could handle one more piece of bad news.
“It sounds like it’s definitely Andrea.”
Rowen groaned and flopped back on the sofa, sinking low. “Of course it is.” She wasn’t sure it actually would have made it better if it would have been someone else. Either way it was someone murdered. “Did they find the rest of the body?”
Eric shook his head. “Not yet, but they say it looks like the body was cut up after it was already dead.”
Rowen wrinkled her nose, not sure how she felt about that particular piece of news. She hoped that Andrea hadn’t suffered, at least. “Do they have any suspects?”
“Nope,” said Eric. “At least, I don’t think so. He didn’t really say much about it when I asked. If I had to guess, it’s because there were so many people at the bonfire. He’s having Jeff draw up a list of people who were there, but I wouldn’t hold my breath about that turning up a whole heck of a lot. Even if Jeff was sober enough to remember all the names, I’m not sure he’ll give them up. A lot of the people who go there are his friends.”
Rowen nodded. “Maybe we should go have a word with him tomorrow. We can see if there’s something he hasn’t told the cops, something he would be more comfortable admitting to just us.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Rowen heaved a big sigh. She leaned down and scratched their dog Chester between the ears. “This sucks.” That was putting it lightly. It was all she could think to say, though. She had other concerns on her mind. Namely, the nature of this curse that seemed to afflict the men in the Greensmith family’s lives. This was another spouse that had been killed before his time. She didn’t want to say anything about it to Eric, but it scared her. It really did.
***
Rowen didn’t sleep well that night. She kept having nightmares in which something would happen to Eric. He would get shot or in a car accident or just suddenly drop dead. It was like her mind was determined to run every single worst-case scenario by her. Finally, she just couldn’t sleep anymore.
It was still dark when Rowen headed downstairs and into the kitchen. She started brewing some coffee and put a couple of pastries in the toaster. Heading to the sink, she splashed some water on her face while she waited.
Hey.
Rowen jumped, splashing water not only onto her face but also onto the floor. She looked around, not sure if she had heard a voice out loud or in her own head. She rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear the sleep from them so that she could see properly.
Relax. It’s just me. The voice belonged to Natalie. I just popped in to see how you were doing.
Rowen released the tension in her muscles. “Me? I’m great.” She turned and splashed a couple more handfuls of water onto her face. “My brother-in-law got shot. I just had to break it to my mother that her husband was killed. The girl I’ve been looking for the past week is already dead, apparently. So, yeah, I’m having just a great time.”
You don’t have to be snotty about it, Natalie grumbled. I’m just trying to be helpful. Maybe I’ll just leave if I’m not wanted.
Rowen took another deep breath. She tried not to overreact. She turned again, purposely using a calm and measured voice. “I’m sorry. Tell me whatever it is you came here to tell me. Please.”
Natalie’s energy buzzed with satisfaction. Thank you for that. I just came to let you know that I’ve been in contact with Rory.
So he hadn’t moved on. “Is he all right?”
Natalie made a sound not unlike a laugh.
He’s dead. But, sure. He’s as
all right as he can be given the circumstances, I guess.
“Is he avoiding me?”
I don’t know. I guess so. He sent me, didn’t he?
“Did he?”
Not really. I just wanted to gossip about him. I really like having someone to talk to. Someone else dead, you know? How was he when he was alive? It doesn’t seem like he and that wife of his had known each other that long. Do you know if they had an open marriage? I mean, obviously, they aren’t technically married now that he’s dead and all, but… Do you think we have a chance?
“Seriously?” Rowen shouldn’t have been surprised by Natalie asking her something like that.
Seriously.
“He just died. He’s not even buried yet. I’d give him a minute to adjust.”
Fiiine. Natalie was still buzzing with energy. She really was happy about having someone new to spend time with. He doesn’t know who killed him. He’s been thinking about it a lot, and he really doesn’t remember anything.
Rowen nodded. That was actually helpful. “Thanks,” she said and meant it. “Where has he been?”
He’s hanging around the spot where he died. Not that there’s a whole lot going on there. It’s pretty boring, really. There were some cops wandering around the place, but they’ve mostly gone now. They were wandering the woods nonstop for the longest time. There were a ton of people there for a while, but I guess they didn’t have the manpower to sustain it. Besides, they weren’t really finding anything. One guy said the place was like a petri dish, whatever that was supposed to mean.
“People are there all the time,” Rowen reasoned. “It’s got to be next to impossible to find evidence if it’s not where they found Rory or where they found the hand. So many people come and go… It would be like searching a night club for evidence. A night club that’s exposed to the elements all the time.”
The pastries popped up from the toaster. Rowen got a plate from the cabinet and went to retrieve them.
“Ask him not to move on yet, if you don’t mind. Ask him to keep thinking about what happened. Anything would be useful. Absolutely anything.” Rowen was ready and willing to take whatever bit of information she could get.
Yeah, sure. Nadine hesitated like she had more to say. She hadn’t left yet.
If I do this for you, you have to do something for me later.
“What?”
You have to help hook us up. Tell me what he likes, how to get on his good side.
“Oh, come on.”
I’m serious. It gets lonely, you know? You have no idea how lonely it gets.
“You could always move on,” suggested Rowen.
Natalie gave a little huff. That’s rude of you to say. And here I am trying to help.
“You’re trying to get me to set you up with my dead stepfather.”
Well, that too. I don’t see why you care. You didn’t even like him.
Rowen felt a stab of guilt when she heard that. It was true, which made it hurt even more. Rory had never been anything but nice to her.
***
Eric slept in. Rowen could have woken him but didn’t. It wasn’t like they could do a whole lot before noon anyway. If they were headed back out to question Jeff themselves, there was a good chance he would still be asleep. He wasn’t much of a morning person.
Rowen was on the phone with Nadine when Eric finally came downstairs. She was sitting on the sofa, massaging the bridge of her nose with her free hand. She could feel a headache coming on. “I’m busy today. I’m sorry.”
“This is important, though,” Nadine pointed out. She wasn’t one to guilt people. It sounded like she was trying to choose her words carefully. She didn’t want to make Rowen feel bad, but she clearly felt strongly about what Rowen should do next.
“So is catching the murderer.” Rowen didn’t feel like she was completely in the wrong here. It wasn’t like she had a whole lot of time to waste. It was better to try and figure things out before the killers had a chance to get comfortable, to feel like they had gotten away with their crimes. For all Rowen knew, they were still trying to get rid of the rest of Andrea’s body. She needed to find whoever it was that had done this before that happened.
“As soon as you have some free time then,” said Nadine, not sounding happy but looking for a compromise.
“All right.” Rowen didn’t know when this nebulous “free time” might be, but it sounded like an excuse that would get her off the phone. “I’ll give you a call when I’m free, okay?”
“Make sure you swing by some time tonight,” Nadine added.
“All right. All right, I’ll swing by when I’m free.” Rowen hung up after that, before Nadine could point out that swinging by “when she was free” wasn’t the same as swinging by that night.
“What’s going on?” asked Eric.
Rowen put her phone down on the coffee table. “My aunts want me to go spend time with my mother. You know, go to the funeral home with her and stuff.”
“Ah.” Eric sank down on the sofa beside his wife. “Which aunt? Lydia or Nadine?”
“Nadine. If it was Lydia, you would have been able to hear her side of the conversation from across the room.” Rowen groaned. If she didn’t turn up at the Greensmith house, it was only a matter of time before Lydia came knocking on her door. She wasn’t one to take no for an answer, especially at times like this, when she felt the whole family should be coming together.
“I can go talk to Jeff on my own,” Eric offered.
Rowen shook her head. “No way. You think I’m letting you go anywhere on your own any time soon?” With all that was happening to the men in the Greensmith family as of late, Rowen wouldn’t dare. “You’re not going anywhere without me.”
“For how long?”
“For the foreseeable future”
“I’m not sure that’s feasible.” Eric raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t argue with her. He probably guessed that now wasn’t the time to argue about it. He’d be guessing right. “Okay, so how about this? We can both go be with your mother for a day. We can put the investigation aside for a day or two. I don’t think anyone is going to fault us for it.”
Rowen shook her head. “And let the trail go cold? No way! Come on. It’s not like my mother doesn’t have anyone with her. Besides, Natalie said that Rory is still out there where his body was. Someone needs to go check on him, don’t they? I really feel like I could do more good there.”
“If you’re determined.” Eric wasn’t going to argue. Rowen was thankful for that. She was doubly thankful that he didn’t bring up the obvious truth in all of this. She just didn’t want to sit around and try to comfort her mother. They weren’t that close. That everyone was going to pretend like they were, like she intrinsically owed this to the woman by virtue of being born… It made Rowen uncomfortable. She wouldn’t be any good as a shoulder to cry on anyway. It really was for the best that she was out looking for the root of this problem. Who had killed Rory and Andrea? Would they kill again?
***
The drive out of town was one driven in silence. Rowen sat back in her seat, watching the countryside pass them by in a blur of green. Her thoughts wandered, but not to the crime. She found herself thinking instead about this apparent curse. How could she make it go away? Should she talk to the Stonewalls? Probably, but she didn’t know who else to ask. She supposed she could ask Jasper when she next had a moment to herself—whenever that would be.
For once, Rowen was thankful when her cell service cut out. She had been worried she would receive a call from Lydia the entire time they were headed out there. Rowen pocketed her phone as the car trundled up the dirt road. There were a few vehicles parked on it, though none of them looked like cars a cop would drive. There was a big white van covered in bumper stickers, a couple of hatchbacks, and a dinged-up muscle car that looked like it might have once been impressive. Eric had learned from the last time they had been here because he made a sharp turn, parking his car horizontally across the drive.
No one was going to make a run for it this time. Whoever was here, Rowen wanted a word with them. She didn’t care if she made anyone mad at this point. It was personal.
“Wait for me,” Eric called after Rowen when she hopped out of the car.
There was still police tape around, though it looked to have been cut. Most of it just kind of hung from the trees or lay on the ground. There were some people milling around the remains of the bonfire, though it didn’t look like a new bonfire had been lit since the last party. No one was noticeably drunk or high either. Everyone was sitting in a circle, on logs or in the dirt. Their heads turned when they heard Rowen approaching. They didn’t say or do anything. They just watched.
The shack was where Rowen headed first. “Wait out here,” Rowen said to Eric, lowering her voice. “Keep an eye on who’s here. Let me know if anyone tries to sneak off.” Rowen was pretty sure they were just there to gossip and take in some macabre sightseeing. Rowen wasn’t going to risk it, though.
“Fine,” Eric relented. He stopped a few feet from the cabin door.
Rowen knocked and waited. For once, it didn’t take Jeff ages to answer her. “Who is it?” he called.
“Rowen Greensmith.”
“Come back later. I’m busy.”
Rowen hadn’t expected that. Jeff had always made time to chat. He hadn’t always been appreciative that she was there, but he had never turned her away.
“It’ll just take a minute.” She wasn’t actually sure of that, but she wanted to get in there. Jeff trying to send her away was making her suspicious. Rowen looked back at her husband. She made a motion for him to go around the shack. She had the sudden, sneaking suspicion that Jeff was trying to buy time so that someone could sneak out a window.
“I don’t have any pants on!” called Jeff.
“That’s never stopped you before.”
Jeff didn’t have anything to say to that. It turned out Rowen’s suspicions had been right though. “Hey!” Eric called. Rowen ran to one side of the cabin just in time to get bowled over by a man trying to make a run for it. She was knocked right off her feet and into the dirt. He hesitated for only a moment before breaking back into a sprint. Eric slowed when he got to Rowen as well, like he was torn on whether to pursue the man getting away or help her up.
