by Dale Mayer
“That’s fine,” he said. “We’ll get a statement from you anyway.”
“Are you telling me that I can’t move back there?”
“At the moment you certainly can’t, no.”
“And it might not be something I can move back into anytime soon?”
“Quite possibly not.”
“Wow,” she said, sagging back onto the bed. “So I don’t even know where to go now,” she whispered to herself.
“Well, at the moment you have a place,” he said, “so let’s deal with this one step at a time.”
“Well, I can hardly sit here on your goodwill,” she said, “and no way I could possibly afford to rent this.”
He asked, “How much were you paying for your apartment?” She mentioned her part, and that had him laughing. “Seriously?”
“Yes,” she said, “we were splitting the full amount, and that was my share of it.”
“Wow,” he said. “I’ve owned my own place, so I’ve forgotten what rents are like here.”
“Especially being a tourist town,” she said quietly.
“Well, let me think about it,” he said. “I’ll see what I can come up with.”
“But I need to find a place for today,” she said, fretting.
“You can stay there today and tonight,” he said shortly.
She stopped and said, “Are you sure?”
“Well, I won’t kick you out into the snow,” he said. “Obviously, as a long-term plan, that’s not a great solution, but it will get us through this immediate problem.”
“That’s great,” she said, “and thank you. To know that I’m even okay for today is huge right now.”
“Right,” he said, and she wondered if he was already wishing he hadn’t made the offer.
“Can you tell me anything about what happened in our apartment?”
“Not yet,” he said. “I’ll pop over in a little bit.”
“Oh, okay,” she said. “And I didn’t mean to impose,” she said, “but I found some coffee in the drawer, and I had some.”
With a note of surprise, he said, “Coffee and stuff are still there?”
“Cookies and some coffee,” she said, “so that was my breakfast.”
“Good,” he said. “If you find any food that you can use, go ahead. I don’t know how old or stale it might be though.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “It’s amazing what you’ll eat when you’re hungry.”
“I guess you haven’t eaten either, have you?”
“Just the cookies,” she said, “but that was fine.”
“Okay, I’ll take a look when I get there and see what else might be around.” And, with that, he hung up.
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but she wouldn’t argue, since he said she could have the coffee, and now she was tempted to get another cup.
She got up and checked if there was more than one cup. If so, then she would indulge, but otherwise she would hold off for later today or even tomorrow. As it was, she opened the cupboard below and found an entire case. She stared at the gold mine with joy. She pulled it out to find more cookies, saltines, some rye crackers, and several cans of tuna. She stared at the tuna. “What an odd thing to find.”
But not. Of course it could be kept for a long time without perishing, so it made sense, depending on who’d been here last. And she didn’t mind because this helped her out tremendously. After finding that, she made a thorough search of every cupboard to see if any other gems could be put to use.
As it was, she found a little tiny fridge, hidden behind those fancy doors to hide the ugly appliances. Only these appliances were pretty on their own. Nothing perishable was in it, but she found mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise. She was good with that. She checked the dates on them, and they were all still fine, so she pulled out some crackers and the mayo, opened up one of the cans of tuna, and had it on crackers. It was a cold meal to go along with the cookies she’d had earlier, but it was something.
She didn’t even think about what food they all had back at the apartment. Probably a little bit remained but not a whole lot. They’d been pretty skimpy on the food lately, and now she knew why; everybody seemed to have partners that they were eating with, while Gabby had been sticking to her little budget and trying to stay alive on it. She shook her head at that—again feeling abandoned by her roommates, her supposed friends—and, by the time she’d finished eating, she remained seated at the small table, watching the snowfall from the windows.
She watched as a vehicle pulled up and parked outside the garage. As she watched, the detective got out, and she checked her phone to see it was already ten o’clock. She hurriedly rose to clean up whatever mess she’d made, to make sure he understood how much she appreciated being here and that she would make sure it would be well taken care of.
When he knocked at the door, she opened it with a smile and said, “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said. As he looked around the small apartment, he said, “It’s actually a nice little space, isn’t it?”
“It is,” she said, “and it’s lovely to see the snow falling and not being in it.” She rolled her eyes at his glance. “I know. I know. It’s part of being in Aspen, but there’s also something nice about enjoying it from inside and not having to go out in it.”
He walked in and had a large bag with him. He placed it on the counter and said, “I didn’t even think to ask if you could use any of this stuff,” he said, “but I brought over a few things.”
She looked at the bag in surprise. “Where did you get this stuff from?”
“My place,” he said in a short voice. He unloaded a dozen eggs, half a block of cheese, what looked like some sliced ham, a loaf of bread, some peanut butter, jam, and honey. It was basically a care package.
She stared at the food and then at him, her heart swelling at his generosity. “Thank you.”
He looked at her, shrugged, and said, “It’s the least I can do.”
“Maybe so, but it’s also way more than most people would do,” she said. “You know that, right?”
“I’m not most people,” he said briskly. He proceeded to put away the food and said, “Help yourself to anything here you want and can use. I didn’t know exactly all that you needed.”
“Well, the bread and peanut butter is a staple,” she said humorously.
He chuckled. “For almost everybody, yes.” He looked around at the apartment and said, “You should be safe enough here.”
At his wording, she stopped, stared at him, and said, “Safe enough?”
He just gave her a shuttered look.
“Is there any reason to think that what happened to Tessa will happen to anybody else?” she asked, as she held her breath, waiting for his answer.
“Until we’ve done our investigation,” he said, “we have no way to know anything yet.”
She stopped and took a long slow deep breath. “I’m really confused.”
“So are we,” he said bluntly. “Your friend was butchered.”
She stared, her hand at her throat, as she took several steps back to come up against the kitchen chair and slowly sat down. “Butchered?”
“Decapitated, and her chest was completely flayed apart.”
Her stomach rose, and her throat closed. Suddenly she was bent over, her head between her knees.
“Take it easy.”
She nodded, took a deep breath, and slowly straightened. “So how did anybody identify her?”
“Well, that’s the trick. The boyfriend identified several tattoos on her hip and lower spine, and she was wearing a ring that he’d given her. But, without the head, we can’t really be sure until the coroner confirms ID.”
She shuddered at the thought. “My God. Why would anybody do that to her?” she asked, her voice trembling, as she wrapped her arms around her chest.
“That’s what we’re still trying to find out,” he said.
“And how fast it all happened.” She stared at him in s
hock. “We heard these horrible noises,” she whispered. “But we had no idea what was going on. Then we called you.”
“And that call was recorded,” he said, “which is a good thing because we heard the noises in the distance, but it did sound more like an animal.”
“I know,” she said. “That’s all we could think of too. But definitely no animal was involved in this.” She stared at him. “She was really butchered?”
He held back from telling her that basically the butchering happened as part of the murder. The killer wasn’t kind enough to wait until Tessa was dead before he flayed her.
Gabby just continued to stare at him.
He worried about the paleness of her skin. Jake had warned him about not giving her too many of the details, but it was hard not to give her some answers, when she’d been there in the apartment at the time.
“Oh, my God,” she said, reaching up with trembling hands to cup her face. “I just don’t understand what’s going on anymore.”
“Has something else happened?” he asked in a sharp tone.
“No, not really,” she said.
“Not really isn’t good enough,” he said.
She looked at him in surprise, then waved her hand, as if to push it off to the side, and said, “I just didn’t realize that Wendy had been lying about her situation and basically hadn’t been telling me anything about what had gone on for the last few months. We’re best friends. We came here together, and I only found out through this nightmare that she’d been keeping all this stuff from me.”
“You mean, the girlfriend?”
“Yes, that’s part of it,” she said, “but also the fact that Wendy had no income and that she’s been living off her savings, while pretending to work.”
“Lots of jobs are in town,” he said, frowning.
“There are, but she had a confrontation with one of the managers in the kitchen where she worked. According to her, he spread some rumors that made her hard to hire again.”
“What kind of rumors?”
“He said she was stealing,” she said quietly.
“Would she have stolen from him? Because that’ll definitely get you kicked out of any kitchen,” he said curiously, “which is almost like a self-sabotaging kind of thing, unless she was hungry and stole food.”
She stared at him, surprised. “I’m not even sure,” she said. “I only found out about it this morning. Wendy had a decent amount of money set aside, and we were all supposed to head back to our normal world when this winter was over. But apparently, while she’s been here, she has gone through the bulk of her money, and her parents blame me for this entire fiasco.”
*
“Wow,” Damon said, leaning against the counter as he studied her for a long moment. “Sounds like it’s been an interesting winter so far.”
“Is that the word for it?” she asked. She shook her head, staring back out the window. “Everything has just been so bizarre.”
“Sometimes life is like that,” he said.
“Maybe,” she said. “I don’t appreciate it.”
He snorted. “Welcome to life.” She gave him a lopsided grin that he found endearing. She looked pretty cute in that moment. Even as he warned himself not to go down that pathway, his heart tugged him there nonetheless. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking at his watch. “I have to go.”
“Fine,” she said. “If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”
“Stay out of trouble. How’s that?” he said. “It’s hard enough for me to get through all this as it is without you bringing up tarot cards and ghosts.”
She winced. “Yeah, I’d like to never bring it up myself again,” she said, “but, after what he said, it’s hard for me to think of anything else.”
“What who said?”
She turned to him. “The guy who pushed me.”
He stared. “You never said anything about him speaking to you.”
“Well, that’s probably because I knew you didn’t believe me in the first place,” she said, frowning.
“I can’t believe anything you say,” he said, “if you don’t tell me the truth.”
“It’s the truth as I remember it,” she said. “I was in a panic, trying to save myself. Remember?”
Everything she said sounded right. Everything had the right tone, the right tenor, to make him believe she was telling the truth. “So what exactly was it that he said to you?”
She walked him through the little bit that she remembered.
“And he said, he was Death?”
“Yes,” she said.
“So somebody is just messing with you?”
“Well, in theory, yes,” she said. But then she stopped and said, “The problem is, I didn’t see anybody.”
“No, of course not,” he said. “But then, you were also pretty busy, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, that’s one way to look at it,” she said. “It was just insane while I was hurled down the mountain. I did hear his voice while I was resting on the bottom, but that’s all.”
“I think that’s probably quite enough,” he said.
“It just makes no sense,” she whispered.
“Well, it will make sense,” he said. “You just aren’t necessarily aware of it yet.”
She looked at him and said, “Have you ever had any psychic experiences?”
He shook his head immediately, even as a voice inside called him a liar. “No,” he said, “none.” She looked at him for a long moment and just something in that gaze of hers had him shifting uneasily on his feet.
“Interesting,” she murmured. “You don’t like telling the truth about that either.”
He glared at her. “I haven’t had anything like that.”
She nodded slowly. “I don’t know,” she said. “Nowadays everything is different. It’s like I can see things more clearly. I can hear things a little bit better, or maybe it’s my intuition. I don’t know. Yesterday I had superhigh energy and was happy, but today it’s like a completely different world.”
“Well, yesterday you were thankful you were still alive after a terribly traumatic accident,” he said, “and today a friend has been murdered.”
Her shoulders sagged at the reminder. “Great,” she said, reaching up to cover her eyes for a moment, her shoulders shaking. “She didn’t deserve that,” she cried out, and the tears dripped down her cheeks. “She was a lovely girl.”
“Well, hold on to that thought,” he said. “Also I need a list of anybody you ever saw around the apartment or who knew where you lived and who knew her.”
She stared at him in shock. “You’re thinking it’s somebody I know?”
“What I’m thinking is that somebody saw her and went after her. But I don’t have a motivation, and I don’t know how he knew she was there. I’m sure you have all the information as far as where she was working and the people she worked with,” he said.
She replied, “Kinda. I know the restaurant name, and you can check out the rest there. That’s one official line of inquiry, but that’s not the same as checking in with her friends. I don’t think I ever met anybody,” she said, frowning, trying to remember.
“Well, while you’re here, relaxing and trying to recuperate,” he said, “I want as much information as you can think to give me. I’ve got to go back to the office now.”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll text you if I come up with anything.”
“I’ll stop by later this afternoon,” he said, and, with that, he turned and headed out the door.
Chapter Six
“Well, that was fast,” Gabby said. “I wonder if he’s coming back to check up on me, or if there’s some other reason.” She sighed to herself.
A voice in the back of her head said, He’s checking up on you.
She snorted at that. “You don’t know that.”
Yes, I do.
“No, you don’t.”
Yes, I do!
“No, you don’t.”
Yes, I do.
She stopped, took a long slow deep breath. “That’s it. I’m officially going nuts.”
You are nuts.
“I am not,” she said, then stopped. “Am I arguing with myself?”
No, you’re arguing with me, said the voice in her head. Then it started to laugh like a crazy man and said, You didn’t even recognize me. How simple are you? And, with that, he disappeared.
She had lost her mind.
Then she realized that the other voice in her head may have actually happened. She wrapped her arms around her chest and rocked herself back and forth, whispering, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” When her phone rang, she dashed to pick it up. “Hello?”
“What’s the matter?” Damon asked in a sharp voice.
“What?” she asked, confusion in her voice, trying to figure out what he was talking about.
“You called out to me,” he said. “What the hell is going on?”
“I called out to you?” She stared around the apartment, certain now that she was going completely mad. “What do you mean, I called out?”
He hesitated, then asked, “Are you okay?”
“No,” she said, “I’m not okay. The damn ghost is talking to me again.” And, with that, she burst into tears. He kept trying to talk to her on the phone, and she ended up just putting the phone down as her hands were trembling and couldn’t hold it any longer. She didn’t know how many minutes she sat here, but, when she heard footsteps on the stairs, she wasn’t surprised to see Damon burst through the door. He dropped down in front of her, and she just threw her arms around his neck and started to cry. “Am I going crazy?” she murmured against his chest.
He held her close and let her bawl.
When she finally regained some semblance of control, she pulled back and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, like a child. She sniffled several times and took several big deep gulps of air and said, “I swear to God, that ghost who pushed me talked to me again.” She stared up at his gaze that was deep and dark and gave nothing away. She sat back and said, “You don’t believe me.”
“I don’t know what to believe,” he said. “In theory, no. I mean, I can’t believe because it doesn’t make any sense.”
