One day Lois wrote Alice saying that she had a proposal that she would only discuss in person and Alice replied, agreeing to meet. The tone of the emails afterward was completely different. They were short messages:
Lois: I’m pregnant.
Alice: Congratulations! You must be so excited!
Lois: I am excited but not for the reason you think. I’d like to talk in person.
Alice a couple days later: I can’t wait to tell Roscoe. We’re going to be a family. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
That was the last email in the exchange. I sat back and absorbed what I knew and there was only one conclusion. Lois had made the suggestion that she would carry a baby for Alice and Roscoe. That last email from Alice thanking Lois was sent the day before her blood and thumb were found in the bed of Roscoe’s pickup truck.
I put down the phone and closed my eyes. Lois had done everything she could to connect with Alice and had been even willing to give her the one thing she wanted more than anything. If I went by the messages alone, it would look as though Roscoe hadn’t taken the news with the enthusiasm Alice had thought. In fact, the argument may have escalated and been the entire reason he killed her. Sadly, this seemed the most likely scenario.
With a long exhale I turned the phone off and reviewed the situation. Although all of this information didn’t exactly set Roscoe free, there was still the very real possibility that the mystery man who knocked up Lois not only killed Alice but also returned to try to murder Lois. I needed to share what I knew about Lois and Alice with the cops. In my gut, I felt the cases were connected and they needed to know that Lois might still be in danger.
I rubbed the crease between my eyebrows as I thought of one major question. What happened to the baby?
Once again I picked up Lois’s phone. I scrolled through her calendar settings until I found it. A few weeks after Alice was found dead, Lois had an appointment at a Bellingham health center known for performing abortions.
After feeding Wookie and Fluffy, I placed a call in to Detective Larry. He wasn’t exactly thrilled that I’d helped myself to her phone in the hospital but I explained that the nurses would’ve just locked it up with the rest of her belongings. I shared what I’d been able to find out and my theory about it being connected to Alice’s murder.
“I guess you weren’t able to find any emails between Lois and Alice because it sounds like Alice deleted them on her end.”
“Yeah. I need that phone, Julie.”
“I’ll drop it off,” I promised.
* * *
Once I arrived at the police station I only spent a few minutes with Detective Larry after handing in the phone. I’d already shared everything I’d uncovered on the device as well as my suspicions and what I knew from Roscoe.
“It does look like she planned to give Alice the baby she was carrying,” the officer said as he scrolled through the phone. “We’ll check with the health center to confirm she was there for an abortion. Did you read any hint about who the father would be?”
“No.” I sighed. “He might be the key to everything, right? Whoever this guy is, he could’ve killed Alice and tried to take out Lois.”
“Hopefully, Lois herself will be able to answer some questions once she regains consciousness.”
“Does that look promising?”
“She lost a ton of blood. The officer responding to the scene thinks the upstairs neighbor missed confronting the person by minutes. Maybe seconds. There’s a good chance it was the sound of Bill’s car pulling up in the back driveway that scared the perp off. Whoever did this planned on killing her.” The officer frowned. “Fingers crossed Lois can tell us herself.”
* * *
After I left I opened up my own phone and mapped out the area between here and the town of Blaine. There was twenty miles by highway between the two cities but hundreds of farms, parks and vacant land galore available for dumping a body. Still, I took out my dowsing rods and kept them on my lap as I drove slowly north toward the border. This case was wearing on me. I fully planned to keep my promise to Garrett and end things soon. I wanted to honor Alice’s memory but I’d decided that I couldn’t risk my own health to do it.
Today I’d take the back roads and wind my way down highway exits and places that looked like logical places to drop Alice’s body. More and more I was beginning to think that she was fish food somewhere at the bottom of the vast Pacific. Between the local law enforcement and myself, this entire portion of the state must’ve been already scoured. The hopelessness of it just dragged me down.
My dowsing rods never wiggled or wavered through all my investigations down both paved and gravel side roads. I was wasting my time. There was something missing and I decided to talk to Kim. When she didn’t answer her phone, I drove to her trailer and I was surprised to find both Ray’s and Blossom’s cars parked on the gravel next to the trailer.
I knocked on the door and could hear some shuffling around inside before it was opened.
“Just wanted to talk to you about some more information I’ve been able to uncover,” I told Kim.
Jet bounded over and jumped on me, and Chichi barked repeatedly. I gave both dogs head pats to calm them down and both followed at my feet when Kim told me to come in and sit down. There wasn’t another available place to sit. Ray and Blossom were sitting next to the same pile of laundry on the sofa that was present every time I visited. I gave them a nod.
“Hiya, Beanster,” Blossom grinned.
“Hi.”
I walked over by the television and leaned a hip on the wall while I gave Ray a curious look. I wanted to ask what the hell he was doing here, but before I could form the words he answered.
“Kim asked if I’d mind coming by to give her a personal reading,” he explained, pushing his glasses up his nose.
“I showed up to drop off the dogs and wanted in on the action.” Blossom laughed. “Unfortunately, there’s no tall, dark stranger in my future.” She let out a theatrical sigh and placed the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically. “Story of my life.”
“Maybe Ray can give you a reading too.” Kim laughed but she looked nervous.
It was crowded with four people and two dogs in the small trailer, and I felt like I was interrupting something.
“Can I grab a soda?” Blossom asked, already up and opening the refrigerator. “Shit, Kim, everything in here is warm.”
“Yeah, I know,” Kim replied. “It’s acting up again.”
“You need a new one,” Blossom said. “No sense spending good cash repairing this old thing.”
“I’ll just go out back and snatch some bills off my money tree then,” she snapped.
“You’re obviously busy, so maybe we should do this another time,” I offered, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. “Then again, with both of us here, I guess we can share everything we’ve found out.”
“Ray’s already shared the readings he gave people and all those he talked to. Seems like you’ve both got a lot of nothing.” Kim held up a hand. “I’m not blaming you at all. All my stepdad wanted was that we look into things to try and find Alice’s body to help Roscoe if he was innocent. You’ve both done more than enough already so...”
She seemed to be taking my failure rather well. Then again, she wasn’t the one who initially made the enquiry with me.
“I guess it’s time we accept Alice might never be found and move on, right?” Kim shrugged. “No sense in continuing to throw money at you when you’re coming up empty-handed. Ray told me he’s done all he can. I don’t blame either one of you for not being able to find Alice. Maybe there wasn’t enough of her to uncover. Probably Roscoe chopped her up into small pieces and tossed her in the water.”
I cringed at the visual but Kim seemed pleased about her summarization or, at the very least, relieved. I guess I wasn’t the only one who was
worn out by this case.
“There’s some more information you should know.” I moved a stack of old magazines and two creepy troll dolls to one side of the coffee table and lowered myself to sit there so I was directly across from Kim. I shared about Lois being attacked and in the hospital.
“Lois was pregnant when Alice was murdered. She planned on carrying the baby for Roscoe and Alice and then turning it over to be raised by them.”
Kim covered her face with her hands as if it was all too much.
“Alice believed that once she told Roscoe about the baby, they’d get back together. Sounds like they were still in love.”
Blossom slowly shook her head. “No. That doesn’t sound right, Beanster. I mean, they were already apart. Roscoe was dating me, for God’s sakes.” Blossom seemed agitated as she got to her feet. “You telling me he still loved Alice and this baby would’ve fixed all that? I’m not buying it.”
“I’ve read the email exchange between Alice and Lois. It was obvious that was their intentions. I’m not saying it would’ve fixed their relationship. I’m just telling you what Alice’s intention was and what happened.”
“It does sound pretty farfetched, doesn’t it?” Ray snorted. “I mean, it doesn’t even seem—”
“Let her finish,” Kim snapped. “Tell me exactly what their emails said.”
I described what I’d been able to uncover on Lois’s phone and from emails between her and Alice.
“Obviously I don’t have conclusive evidence. All I can tell you is what the email exchange was,” I admitted. “Hopefully Lois will recover from her injuries and she’ll be able to shed light on the definitive truth here.”
“I’m sure the cops won’t want to know anything about this until you have actual proof or until Lois says it herself.” Blossom zipped up her hoodie and walked to the door, where she put on her shoes. “I’ve got stuff to do.”
I didn’t interrupt to say that I’d already talked to the police about it. Blossom gave us all a nod and told Kim she’d be back for the dogs in a couple hours, then headed out the door.
“I hate this,” Kim mumbled with a slow shake of her head then an angry scratch at her crimson neck rash. “This entire situation is a tangled mess of garbage that just keeps stinking to high heaven, and every time I think it’s gone away, it comes back.”
I could tell she was overwhelmed by this latest bit of news. It must be hard not knowing for certain if Roscoe killed Alice.
“I understand,” I told Kim. “It must’ve taken a lot to accept that Roscoe did this, and now there are extenuating circumstances that still might not be enough to clear his name. I know your stepdad wanted him out of prison, but honestly, even with all of this information, it probably won’t be enough. Without Alice’s body and without at least the name of the person Lois slept with...” I shrugged. “Plus this new information could just be another nail in his coffin.”
“What do you mean?” Kim looked at me quizzically.
“I mean, what if Alice showed up here that night to tell Roscoe that Lois was carrying a baby for them. What if Roscoe had changed his mind and was happy with Blossom? What if the baby thing sent him over the edge?”
“That’s a lot of what ifs,” Kim said. “I can see how telling the police about that wouldn’t help his case.”
“I’ve gotta get back.” Ray got to his feet then.
“Aren’t you going to give Julie a reading since she’s here?” Kim asked.
“No,” both Ray and I replied simultaneously.
“I should get going too,” I told Kim. “I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to find Alice and put all this to rest. Seems like all I’ve got are more questions.”
“Not your fault.” Kim waved her hand. “It’s time to just let sleeping dogs lie.” She got up and walked me to the door. She sighed loudly like she was relieved to put all this to bed. “Send me your final bill and I’ll be sure you’re paid.”
Once outside I followed Ray to where he was getting inside his car.
“Look, I don’t know what you’ve got going on with your psychic medium stuff, and frankly I don’t care because that’s none of my business. How you treat Tracey though, that is my business. If you don’t want to see her anymore, at least be man enough to tell her that instead of just standing her up.”
“Yeah, that was a mess. I already talked to Tracey and everything’s fine.” He ran his fingers through his spiked hair, and his brown eyes softened as he smiled at me. “I had planned to see her, but I had a bad night, had a few too many cocktails once I got home and fell asleep.”
That was something I could relate to, but it didn’t make me feel good about Tracey possibly getting messed up with someone with a drinking problem.
“Anyway, I messaged Tracey to apologize. I’ll say sorry to you too, since I know she’s your best friend.”
“Do you drink like that often?” I hated the judgy sound in my voice that had no business being there, but for Tracey’s sake I had to ask.
“No. Almost never. Just had a lot on my mind.”
He got behind the wheel of his car as I added, “Don’t we all.”
“Yeah.” He had his car door still open as he put the key in the ignition and started it up. “I know you’re still worried about Wayland and the ring—”
He went to close his door and I put my hand on it to stop it from closing.
“What exactly do you know about Wayland Canteen and my ring?”
“Only the vibe I got off you that day on the side of the road when you found Rachel Wu in the ditch.” He gave me a casual shrug. “That you were worried about someplace called Wayland and you were upset about losing your ring.”
“You never mentioned the ring.” I chewed nervously on the inside of my cheek as I absorbed what he said. Abruptly, I thrust out my hand. “You know what? Go ahead and give me a reading. Maybe you can tell me what happened that night. I need help to, you know, put together some missing pieces. I was...” I cleared my throat. “I was drunk that night and, well, it would be nice to figure some stuff out that I don’t remember.”
He looked at my outstretched hand and slowly shook his head.
“If we’re going to do this, I’d rather do it properly.” The softness in his eyes had been replaced by a look of smugness. He shoved his glasses up his nose as he added, “I know you don’t think I’m as good as you, but I do have professional standards. If you want a proper reading, we’ll do it right. Call me later this evening and we can arrange an appointment.” He tugged on the door and I let it go. “By the way, I charge a hundred bucks an hour but, you know, I don’t mind waiving that fee for my future partner.”
I watched him drive off and I felt a surge of anger in my gut. It felt a lot like Ray was trying to coerce me into getting into a partnership with him. Even more than fury was the overwhelming surge of anxiety that Ray could actually help me find out what really happened that night at Wayland. Maybe he could tell me for certain whether I cheated on Garrett. My stomach soured at the thought.
As his car disappeared down the dirt road, I stopped myself just before climbing into my rental car, and instead turned around and walked back to the trailer. Kim had obviously been watching through a window because she opened the door before I knocked.
“Just one more question,” I said. “Did Ray give you a good reading? Was he actually able to tell you what you wanted to know?”
She scratched the red and flaky skin on the side of her neck before answering.
“Ray is...” She searched for the words. “He isn’t all that and a bag of chips, know what I mean?”
“No.” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other while standing on the steps.
“I mean that in his own mind, he’s an excellent psychic, but there’s a reason why people aren’t pounding down his door the way they do yours.” She smiled sadly. �
�He knows some stuff, sure, but he just doesn’t know enough. He’s too vague, and no matter how hard he tries, people around here mostly just humor him. He seems to know just enough to make people think he’s got the skills. I’m not saying he’s a faker or a scammer. But he’s not at your level.” She chuckled. “Sure does piss him off that people around here don’t talk about him with the same reverence they do you. Everyone in these parts was all saying, ‘call Julie’ and ‘ask Julie to find her’ when Alice was killed. He offered his services to people who knew Alice, and they all just kind of blew him off until recently, when he said he was working with you.”
That was interesting, but at the same time, when he held my hand and knew immediately about Wayland, I’d known Ray had to be the real deal. Maybe Ray couldn’t give people exactly what they wanted but he’d been right about me, and I’m sure he was right more often than that. It was hard to get respect in this industry so I wasn’t holding that against Ray.
“At the end of the day, I’m sorry I’ve let you down.” The wind kicked up and I stuffed my cold hands into my pockets. “Like you said, everyone around here was saying for you to call Julie and then, when you do, I’m not even able to find her.”
“You didn’t let me down,” Kim said dryly. “I had zero expectation to start with. My stepdad was the one who wanted you. Personally, my feeling was what difference does it make if Alice’s body is found? All the evidence pointed to Roscoe anyway.” She sighed. “At least until this thing with Lois and Alice maybe having some lover...” She shook her head. “Anyway, his dad wanted to see if you could find Alice but now his money can go to paying for Mom’s care home and maybe fixing up this dump. Alice is dead and no amount of lawyers or psychics are going to change that.”
A Grave End Page 18
