A Grave End

by Wendy Roberts

  “It wasn’t about the dog.” He put his palms on the table and leaned in. “Alice had an affair when still married to Roscoe.”

  “Did she say that, or did you get that from your reading?” I asked. “The only person who ever mentioned that was Kim, and apparently everyone else thinks the idea of Alice screwing around is ridiculous. I wonder if Kim blabbed that bit of gossip to Barb and she’s run with it.” That annoyed the hell out of me. “Did Roscoe tell Barb that?”

  “She said it was just the impression she got from him.”

  “He never even hinted that to me.”

  “So who was she cheating with?” Tracey gushed placing a hand briefly on Ray’s arm.

  “Like I said, Barb said it was a feeling she got but it could just be gossip. I’m going to try again. Next time I’ll get her to talk to me longer and see about finding out more.” He nodded his chin at me. “You had a busy day. You found the body of that junkie. Good for you.”

  “I thought it was Alice,” I admitted with a small cringe. “I was really hoping it was that easy.”

  “It’s only normal you’d assume it was Alice since that’s who you’re looking for.” He gave a small shrug. “Right, Tracey?”

  “Sure.” Tracey’s eyes never left his.

  Oh, brother.

  “What’s your opinion?” I asked Ray. “Do you think he did it?”

  “Does it matter? Our job is to find Alice, right? Let the cops collect all the evidence after we find the body.”

  “True.” I nodded.

  “If I had to make a guess, I’d say that, yes, Roscoe killed her but I don’t think he tossed her in the water. First, he doesn’t own his own boat, and sure, he could’ve gone down to the marina and borrowed one, but it all seems like too much for a drunk guy. Unless, of course, it was premeditated and he thought about killing her all along.”

  “True.” That was another bit of information I hadn’t picked up. It was entirely possible that Roscoe had planned to kill Alice. Maybe he hadn’t planned on doing it that night, but if he already had some ideas in place then the argument that night might have been the catalyst to put things into action. I was becoming glad that Ray was helping.

  “So what’s your plan now?” he asked me.

  “Well...” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I think I’ll go over a map of the area, make a list of everyone we know who had connections with either Roscoe or Alice and see who else I can talk to. Next time I head up that way I guess I’ll do a more thorough crisscrossing of surrounding areas in my car with my rods out, just in case. And you?”

  “I’ll try to find out when Barb works next and schedule another prayer session.” He grinned.

  “I’ll contact Dana. She’s a coworker who seems eager to help.” I covered a sudden yawn with my hand. “Once I find out Barb’s schedule I’ll let you know.”

  “Not necessary. I can work my own connections to get her schedule.” He got to his feet. “You’re obviously tired so I should get going.”

  “So soon?” Tracey shot me a pleading look.

  “How about you give my friend here a reading first,” I suggested. “I think she’s dying for one.”

  “Only if you have time,” Tracey rushed.

  “Sure.”

  Ray sat back down and turned his chair toward hers next to him. She also turned to face him so they were now sitting knee-to-knee. He took both her hands in his and closed his eyes. He didn’t speak for at least a couple of minutes, and when he did, his voice was low and slow.

  “You’ve had physical difficulty. I’m afraid you have more surgeries in your future but I don’t see anything soon.”

  “Oh my God!” Tracey squealed and Ray hushed her seriously.

  “Please don’t talk.”

  He drew in a deep breath and continued. “These surgeries will only slow you down temporarily. You worry about your friend, Julie, but I see you both staying friends a very long time. Even traveling together sometime in the next year. Somewhere warm and beachy. Something is wrong with your car. Also, you’re going to get a cat in the next few months.”

  He released her hands and then smiled. “That’s the quick version.”

  “That was totally amazing!” She playfully punched him in the shoulder.

  I’d watched him with growing interest but kept my own hands folded in my lap so he wouldn’t suddenly grab them and say something about Wayland. Or worse, reveal one other particular secret I was keeping under wraps for now.

  “Oh, there was one more thing,” Ray said as he got to his feet. “I see you going out to dinner with a guy you just met.”

  I grinned in spite of the cheesiness.

  “Are you asking me out?” Tracey laughed.

  “Yes.”

  I let Tracey walk him to the door and I stayed sitting at the kitchen table with Wookie resting on my feet. After she’d shut the door after him, Tracey returned to the table with a huge grin on her face.

  “We’re going out for dinner tomorrow night.” She flopped down in her chair. “Can you believe how cute he is?”

  “Adorable.” I smiled over at my friend. “Quite the coincidence that you knew each other from the grocery store.”

  “Yeah.” She smiled sheepishly. “I actually think he’s been trying to get up the nerve to ask me out for a while. Even when the line was shorter at another clerk, he’d always stand in my line and once I saw him in his car parked close to mine when he was leaving. It’s sweet that it took him so long to get up the nerve.”

  “Just be careful. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  “Yes, Mom,” Tracey joked.

  I was exhausted and I still wanted to dig into the trial transcript before bed so I told her I needed to drive her home. Before she got out of the Jeep she turned to me.

  “In Ray’s reading he said that I worry about you,” Tracey said. “And I do. You just seem more...” She struggled to find the word. “Troubled than usual. Maybe this case and being in your hometown isn’t the best choice.”

  “I knew Alice in school. We had some things in common. I just feel like I owe her, so if I find Alice it’ll be something I gave the city, and then I can leave that place on a positive note and never go back.” Even as I said the words, it felt like a near impossible task. “I’m going to read the information on Roscoe’s trial, then if I decide to take on the case, I’m giving it a week. If I don’t find Alice in that time, I’m going to close the door on the entire situation.”

  “Good.” She reached over and gave my hand a squeeze. “I’m working tomorrow, but if something comes up and you need me, I can call in sick. It’s not like the grocery store will implode if I’m not there.”

  “I’ll be fine.” But as the crease of worry deepened between her eyes I added, “But if I’m not fine, I’ll call you.”

  After she left, I felt the fatigue of the day dragging me down. Still I opened the package of trial paperwork and stacked it next to a pad of paper and pen for jotting notes and a large cup of freshly brewed coffee. Before I knew it, hours had passed and I was sitting back in the chair frowning over everything I’d read. Garrett would be calling shortly to say goodnight. I got to my feet, scrubbed my face, brushed my teeth and climbed into bed with Wookie. I was already fast asleep when my phone rang a few minutes later and I answered with a start.

  “You were asleep?”

  “Just nodding off. It was a long day.” I stifled a yawn. “Tell me about your day.”

  There was very little he could tell me and that was the nature of his being an FBI agent but he talked about how one of the other agents who was a practical joker and how they’d had vegan burgers for dinner. Just the sound of his voice soothed my nerves and I found myself feeling relaxed and sinking into my pillow.

  Garrett mentioned the weather had been stormy and he’d been caught in an unexpected downpou
r.

  “It was quite the gale and—”

  “What?” I sat up, my nerves on alert.

  “I said the storm was quite a gale and we got wet.”

  But what I’d heard instead of “gale and” was “Wayland,” and my stomach clenched. I faked a yawn and spoke through it so he couldn’t hear the anxiety in my voice.

  “Sorry, baby, I’m beat.” The fake yawn triggered a real one.

  We said our goodnights and I-love-yous but after I put the phone back on my bedside table, all I could think about was Wayland. I chose a calming meditation app on my phone and let it soothe me to sleep. The calming voice told me to follow my breath all the way in and all the way out, and after a while, I drifted off.

  The air in the bar was thick with beer and despair. My throat was sour from wine as I stumbled toward the bathroom, hoping to throw up. My breath caught as the stranger who was sitting in my booth grabbed my elbow to steady me. I tried to push him away but he held fast. He walked me toward the washrooms and leaned in to whisper something. His thick mustache and beard tickled my ear and his hot breath caused me to shudder. He wore a cloying men’s cologne that made me want to retch. Whatever he said scared me to death.

  I woke up to Wookie licking my face.

  “Ugh.” I pushed him away. “Your breath stinks.”

  The sheets were tangled around my legs and I was damp with sweat. Last night’s disjointed mix of Wayland thoughts sprang to mind and I pushed them away, feeling guilty for the craving for wine that followed.

  I briefly read through the notes I’d made the night before on the trial transcript. Although it wasn’t common to convict someone of murder without a body, Roscoe wasn’t the first person to be sent to prison for murder without a victim in the morgue. The prosecution didn’t have to work hard to prove Roscoe had motive to kill his estranged wife. The loud argument in the center of town provided enough witnesses to clinch that fact. It seemed an open-and-shut case with the combination of that motive and the evidence that Roscoe’s own sword had been discovered bloody nearby, the bed of his pickup contained a sufficient amount of Alice’s blood, and the remnants of Alice’s thumb perched inside. It was all tied up in a little bow. A niggling in the back of my mind said it was all a little too neat and tidy. If Roscoe had passed out inside his trailer, how hard would it have been for someone to set him up?

  After I fed the pets, I sent off a text to Dana asking if she could possibly let me know Barb’s work schedule this week. She replied saying Barb was going to be off work both today and tomorrow at two o’clock. I replied with a thank-you and then sent a copy of that message to Ray. He called immediately and said he was going to go today and have another prayer meeting with Barb.

  He laughed at his own joke.

  “I’ll be there right when she gets off,” he added. “Not going to stay too late there because I need to get home and clean up for my date with Tracey tonight. Does she like flowers? Is it too much if I bring her roses? I don’t want to come off like I’m trying too hard. Maybe flowers are too special for a first date and—”

  “Tracey deserves special. I’m sure she’ll like whatever flowers you get.” I paused a beat and then added, “Ray, just be kind to her, okay? Don’t mess with her feelings.”

  “I swear to God I’ll be on my best behavior.”

  I guess I couldn’t ask for more than that. It wasn’t long after I hung up that Tracey began messaging me because she was excited about her date. She wanted my advice on what to wear. As if the girl whose uniform was a T-shirt and jeans was the person you went to for fashion advice.

  I didn’t relish the idea of making the hour drive back to my hometown but I was determined to help Alice. I’d promised to work the case for only a week and that had given me renewed determination to give it my best shot. I only wished I had more to go on. Maybe it was time to take Blossom out for coffee. I sent her a message asking what time she was done at the motel. It was almost an hour later and I was preparing my backpack to leave when she responded saying she was off today. I messaged her back asking about a coffee date. Again, she took a while to reply but finally she agreed but told me to message her later about a time since she was just getting out of bed.

  The entire drive north on I-5 I played guided meditations. Generally, these put people to sleep but my goal was only to keep my nerves steady and my stomach soothed. I followed along with the deep breathing exercises as I zoomed in and out of traffic. Every once in a while I would get a flash of a vision from inside Wayland Canteen. Something bothered me about that night. Something had happened, and trying to search my head was like trying to hold water in my hands.

  “It’s in the past,” I told myself as I zipped into the left lane to pass a slow moving minivan. “Stop obsessing and focus on Alice.”

  Thinking about Alice Ebert became easier as I got closer to my destination. Just because I hadn’t found Alice’s body in the bay didn’t mean she wasn’t there, but that felt wrong. Roscoe had been drunk that night. If he killed her and stashed her body it would’ve been nearby. I needed to check the area where he was living at the time—that trailer and farm where Kim now lived. I gave Kim a call.

  “Hi, Kim, I know the police probably checked all your land for Alice’s body, but I need to check it again. Just to cross it off my list.”

  “I guess there’s no harm in that. When you thinking?”

  “Today. In about half an hour.”

  “I’m out. I won’t be back for hours.”

  “You don’t need to be there,” I assured her. “I’m just going to walk around your two acres, okay?”

  “Oka-a-ay...” She seemed uncertain and added, “Like you said, the cops already checked all around there more than once, so it seems like a waste of time.”

  “I know but it’ll put my mind at ease.” I thanked her before I disconnected the call.

  The drive into Kim’s property immediately ramped up my nausea.

  “The farm’s miles away,” I told myself in an attempt to calm that sick feeling. “You’ll be fine.”

  But the land looked so similar, and the air and feel of it brought a rush of sensations from my dark and terrifying childhood. My grandmother’s voice briefly snarled in my head.

  You’re a stupid, worthless child.

  A comment that had usually been followed with a vicious and cruel assault.

  “I’m fine. I’m safe. I’m okay.” I repeated the affirmations over and over as I parked the Jeep.

  Kim’s two-acre plot of land was mostly just scrub of weeds and brush. Only about one-quarter acre around the trailer had been cleared. I reached inside my pack, pulled out my rods and hopped out of the Jeep. I decided to march to the back of the property and walk in rows back and forth until I reached the house and large shed. The air was damp and chilled my face as I hiked toward the property line made clear by a neighboring farmer’s fence.

  Once there, I held my rods out and walked. I strode to the end of the property on one side and then did an about-face and marched back to the other end of the yard. The weeds scratched my thighs through my jeans and even my arms in some places. As I walked, I tried to keep my head away from the neighborhood and away from Wayland Canteen. I thought instead about another preoccupation that I kept pushing aside.

  I hummed and whistled to myself and wasn’t at all surprised that by the time I’d reached the back of the trailer, the rods hadn’t moved an inch. After all, it would’ve been the first place the cops looked. That said, if he’d buried her deep enough under the brush even the most trained investigator could’ve missed it. Unfortunately, Alice was nowhere around here or my rods would’ve said as much.

  As I walked past the trailer, I pressed the fob to unlock the Jeep. Suddenly I heard a loud noise from inside the trailer. Something like glass breaking. I swung around and stared at the building. Kim’s car wasn’t there and she said she
wouldn’t be home. I glanced over at the outbuilding that had a rusted padlock on the big swinging door. The way it leaned to one side, I couldn’t imagine anyone attempting to park in there.

  “Damn dogs,” I muttered to myself as I climbed into the Jeep. No doubt they’d knocked something on the floor. I briefly debated sending Kim a message to let her know that she might be coming home to a mess but just as I was starting my Jeep, I heard her car coming down the long driveway.

  It was raining now so I waited until Kim was out of her vehicle before I climbed out of mine and joined her.

  “Your muffler is busted,” I pointed out, even though clearly anyone within earshot could tell the car had a problem.

  “If it’s not one thing it’s another with this thing.” She kicked a tire angrily then turned to me. “You already done?”

  “Yup. Found nothing but I didn’t really expect to. Just crossing my t’s, know what I mean?” I shielded my eyes from the rain.

  “Okay, well, I’d invite you in but I’m home early on account of I feel sick.” She pointed at the trailer with a wave of a bright keychain. “Gotta hit the washroom.”

  “Okay. I’ll keep you posted,” I said and then quickly added, “By the way, I heard something break inside so be careful. Sounds like one of the dogs might have knocked something over.”

  She blushed to her roots and gave me a quick nod as she hustled toward her trailer. I started my car, and as she went up her steps, I noticed a large pair of muddy men’s work boots outside on her stoop. Maybe it wasn’t the dogs after all.

  I drove off wondering about Kim having a man. She’d never mentioned it but it made me curious. I tried Blossom’s phone number but it went to voice mail so I took my rods and investigated some neighborhood green areas.

  A couple hours later I was coming out of Heron’s Pond Park soaked to the bone after getting caught in a deluge of West Coast fall rain. My phone rang and I wiped my wet hands on my jeans before answering the call from Blossom.