by Jessie Cooke
“No. I’m coming in,” she told him. He reached out for her hand and she almost recoiled, but she realized if she was going to make it through the thick brush that reached across the ascending path in front of him, she’d probably need his help. She took his hand and felt almost ashamed of the rush of electricity that raced through her when she came skin to skin with him. This man might not have killed her sister, but she was sure he was somehow responsible for Pamela being on the ranch and in the path of a killer. Her sister was still on a slab in the morgue—and Sabrina was having lustful thoughts about the man Pamela probably spent her last hours with. Her face flushed hot with shame and she was glad he had his back to her.
The trail narrowed further, and the dense brush was packed around and over it, creating a tunnel effect as they climbed. Bri almost felt claustrophobic for the first time in her life. She told herself not to concentrate on the closed-in feeling, but rather the sounds and scents of nature all around her. The soil was wet, packed down by the rain and most likely the animals that had scurried down it before them. Things around them in bloom smelled almost sweet and the fallen trees and wet leaves on the ground had an old, musty, almost sickening smell. All of it was an assault on her already overheightened and overburdened senses that were on high alert. She could hear sounds that she didn’t recognize all around them, and between that and the idea that they were searching for someone that might have killed her sister, her heart was pounding like a drum in her chest and even in the cold air, she was sweating.
“You doing okay?” Wheelie asked her after they’d been walking for a while.
“Yeah, I’m good,” she lied. The further they went into the dark, dense forest, the more she regretted this decision. She started becoming almost paranoid, wondering if he was taking her out into the forest to do her in. She reached back and rested her hand on the gun in the holster under her jacket, just to make sure it was still there...just in case.
She held onto his hand tightly and tried to concentrate on her breathing as she watched the gnarled branches tear at his jacket and felt them trying to pry their way through her jeans. After a while the sounds around them seemed to stop, and everything, even time, seemed to stand still. She could tell that Wheelie had noticed it too. He stopped and even seemed to be holding his breath as he looked around. She watched him pull out his phone and slide on the flashlight. They both stood as still and quiet as the forest around them, while he shone the light around.
“What are you looking for?” she whispered.
“I don’t know, but did you notice how it just got quiet all of a sudden?”
“Yeah, it’s colder here too, but I don’t think that means Buzz is here.”
“No. The cold is because the trees have blocked out all the sun. But usually when animals are this quiet in the forest it’s because they can smell humans. I’m sure a lot of them kept quiet as we went by...but this quiet is unnatural...holy fuck!”
Sabrina’s eyes followed the direction of the light but before she saw what he was looking at, he flicked it down toward the dark, wet soil. “What is it?” His breathing had escalated and even in the dark she could see how wide his eyes were. He was clutching her hand so tightly that it hurt. When he didn’t answer her she said, “Wesley? What did you see?”
“We need to go get Dax.” He turned and tried to pull her with him. Before she took a step, she pulled her own phone out and slid the light on with her thumb. When she aimed it in the direction that he had shone his, she suddenly heard a blood-curdling scream. It wasn’t until she found herself on the ground with Wheelie next to her on one knee that she realized that scream had come from her.
9
Sabrina could hear the raised voices around her, but her head was buzzing with the image of what she’d just seen. She was in shock, maybe. She had just sat there while Wes got the jump on her and called Dax Marshall to get him out there before she could call the cops. She’d told him earlier she planned on calling her father, but that wasn’t true. She wanted to help poor, dead Pam, but not that asshole. She wondered if Wesley would call the cops, or if Dax would. She didn’t have to worry for long because after she heard him giving Dax directions, she heard him on the phone with someone else, telling them Dax said to give him fifteen minutes before they called the detectives. She was still sitting in the dirt, shaking, and Wes was pacing around her when Dax Marshall and his entourage arrived. He used a flashlight to take a look at what they’d stumbled upon, and then he’d turned the light onto Wheelie’s face and said:
“What were you doing out here...with her?”
Wesley cocked his head toward their gruesome discovery and said, “Looking for him.”
“What made you think he’d be out here?” Dax asked. Then he’d focused his piercing blue eyes on her again and said, “Or was this her idea?”
“She asked me to help her find him,” Wesley said. “It was my idea to look here. I knew that the police and our crew were out knocking on doors and I just started to wonder about him coming onto the ranch the other night and never leaving. It made me think of this place.” Dax’s blue eyes were shooting fire out at Wheelie. She could tell that he was saying things he wasn’t supposed to, and she had a feeling that he was going to pay for it later. She could almost see the legendary MC president fight to rein in his temper. Suddenly, he was all business. He looked at one of his guys whose kutte read “Cody” on the front and underneath that, “S.A.,” and said:
“You and Jimmie stay here and make sure no one gets in, or out.” Cody and a tall guy with short, curly hair both nodded. Then Dax turned to a younger man with dreadlocks, dark skin, and blue eyes and said, “Gunner, ride out to the gate and meet the police and bring them out here.”
“Okay...we gave them the address on the county road so the sheriff will come in the back way.”
“I know, but Boston PD will pick up the call too and they’ll knock on the front door, hoping they’ll see another opportunity for a search warrant—and we’re still cleaning up after the last one.” Gunner nodded and took off. Bri had grown up hearing one story after the other about the Skulls. Her father hated them, and what he hated most was how a lot of people in the community accepted them as a “club” and not a “gang.” He also hated the amount of respect that Dax Marshall seemed to generate. She hated to admit it, but watching him take charge was impressive. It was Wheelie’s turn again for that intense gaze. “Did you touch anything?”
“No.”
He looked at Bri. “You?”
She snorted. “You know who I am, right?” Dax’s eyes narrowed, and in a tone that sent a chill through her he said:
“And you know who I am...right?” He turned his back on her, finished, for now. But the tone of his voice said to her that they weren’t finished by a long shot. That was okay with her. She was shaken up over what she’d just seen...but she wasn’t finished with any of these men until one of them was behind bars, paying for what he did to her sister.
Wheelie answered Dax’s questions as much as he could. He didn’t know any more than what he’d told him. They were looking for Buzz...and they’d found him. Now Wheelie couldn’t stop looking at him, even though he didn’t want to. He couldn’t stop wondering why...and feeling guilty for thinking that this man, his friend, had killed that girl.
Buzz was sitting upright against a tree with his hands tied behind him. His face was mangled so badly that if not for the kutte he still wore, and the brand-new boots he’d just been showing off a few days before, Wheelie might not have been so sure it was him. His nose was obviously broken, and his lips were so swollen that Wheelie had to wonder if there were any teeth left in his mouth. Dried blood had congealed as it ran down his ruddy skin and now it was a dirty brown color. But the beating he had obviously taken was very likely not what killed him. The gaping wound to his throat, so much like the one that Wes had seen drawn across Pamela’s, and couldn’t get out of his head, was probably what had ended his life. It looked like a gallon of
blood was congealed around that and had run down and soaked the front of his t-shirt and kutte. His lap was full of blood as well. As gruesome as that all was, the worst part of it all was that his eyes were still wide open. The pale irises seemed to be watching everyone around him, waiting for someone to tell him that he was dead. Wheelie suddenly felt sick. He could taste what he’d eaten for dinner the night before in the back of his throat. There were cops and what looked like a medical examiner or crime scene tech coming up the hill from the road toward them. Dax and the others seemed to be casually waiting for them. Bri looked like she was in some form of shock. Wes knew that he couldn’t get sick in front of these people. It would be a sign of weakness to some, guilt to others. He swallowed the bile and fought the nausea with everything in him.
“Well, Mr. Marshall, once again we have the pleasure of meeting.” Detectives Martin and Sampson looked less than pleased to be meeting Dax again, no matter what the older man said. The tech with them looked even less pleased to be there. Wesley recognized him now that they’d broken through the trees. It was David Brady, Angel’s brother and Dax’s brother-in-law. He looked at Dax and cocked an eyebrow, like he was asking him a silent question...and then he took a camera out of the bag he was carrying and started taking photos. The Sheriff had arrived too, but he and his men were busy establishing the perimeter between the crime scene and the back road.
“Who found him?” Sampson asked, brushing a branch out of his face.
“I did,” Wheelie said. The two detectives looked at him and the older man laughed.
“Imagine that. The usual suspects.” Wheelie almost told him to fuck off, but he was stopped by a silent look from Dax. That was about the same time that Sampson’s eyes fell on Bri, still sitting on the ground with her knees drawn up to her chest and her back against a tree. “Sabrina?”
She looked up at the detective and Wheelie thought that her eyes looked even worse than they had earlier. If she didn’t rest soon, she’d probably pass out from exhaustion. “Hey,” she said. “Is my father coming?”
The detectives looked at each other and Martin said, “He’s on his way, I believe. Sabrina, what are you doing here?” He asked Bri the question, but his eyes scanned the crowd of men as if to say, “With these people?”
“I was with Wesley when he found the body.”
Another exchanged look and this time Sampson spoke. “Why?”
She sighed. “Can we save all this for the official interview?”
“Yeah, sure. Are you okay?”
“I will be,” she said, dropping her head back down on her arms, which were folded across her knees.
“I need you to all get back twelve feet,” Sampson said. “David, give me a twelve-foot perimeter.”
David looked around them. There wasn’t a foot between the tree Buzz was tied to and the next one and the one after that. The Sheriff’s deputies were still busy on their side and the bikers had all been careful to stand back at least six feet, but any perimeter larger than that was already compromised...and as far as Wheelie was concerned, unrealistic. The look on David’s face said that he thought the same. He didn’t argue with the detective, however. He took a roll of crime-scene tape out of the bag and held it between his hands as he surveyed the area. Dax turned to his men and said, “You can all go back to the house, give them some room to work.”
“Not you,” Sampson said to Wheelie, and that was when Bri looked up again.
“Why not him? I was with him when he found the body. He was as horrified as I was...we are both still horrified. You’re going to make him stand here while you catalog all of this and the M.E. does his thing? What the fuck is that about, Cam?”
Wheelie was looking at the detective, but he could see Dax in his peripheral vision. From the look on the president’s face, she’d just moved up a notch in his eyes. “Cam” Sampson glared at Wheelie like he was the one that had defied him and said, “Fine. You can go for now. But, don’t leave town.” Wesley almost laughed. “The usual suspects.” “Don’t leave town.” It all sounded like he thought he was fucking Dick Tracy. Wes bit the inside of his lip and nodded before walking over to Sabrina and offering her his hand. He felt all eyes on them as he helped her to her feet.
“You have my number,” Wheelie told the detective.
“And mine,” Bri said.
“Yeah,” Sampson said, and then lowering his voice he asked Bri, “What should we tell your father?”
She whispered back, “Tell him I’m twenty-six years old.” With that, and her hand still in Wheelie’s, she started walking down the hill toward the road where they’d left her car. Wheelie had gotten the nod from Dax, and suddenly he couldn’t wait to get out of there so that he could breathe. It wasn’t even noon yet and it had already been a long fucking day.
Wheelie was surprised when Sabrina drove him to his apartment and got out. He must have given her a strange look because she said, “Do you mind if I hang out here for a while? I just don’t want to be alone right now.”
“No, of course not.” She silently followed him up to the apartment door and just as he was unlocking it, her phone rang. She sighed when she looked at the caller I.D. and when she answered it she said, “Hey, Dad.” Wheelie went ahead and pushed the door open and let her step inside. He set his keys down on the table near the door and pointed toward the kitchen. She shook her head. He wasn’t sure what that meant. He had been offering her privacy. “I’m fine, Dad, calm down. I will explain what I was doing there when I see you. No! Nobody coerced me into anything. Christ, Dad, I’m twenty-six years old. I’m a probation officer. I’m not some little girl who can be manipulated. Take care of the crime scene and then call me. Wesley and I will come in and make our statement then.” Wheelie could still hear the sound of his voice coming through the phone as she ended the call.
“He exhausts me,” she said. The statement was aloud to the room, but not directly at Wheelie, so he didn’t say anything in response. Instead he said:
“Are you hungry, or thirsty?”
“You have any whiskey?”
He was surprised by that. “Um, yeah...some Jack, I think.”
“Coke?”
He nodded. “You sure you want to drink before you talk to your dad?”
She chuckled and said, “I have to drink before I talk to him.”
Wesley nodded. Having met her father only the once, he could completely understand.
10
Wheelie fixed Bri her drink and found her leaning back on his couch with her eyes closed when he came back into the room. At first, he thought she was asleep, but she opened her eyes and reached for the drink when he got close.
“You’re more than welcome to lie down and take a rest if you need to. You look exhausted.”
“Thanks,” she said as she took the drink out of his hand. “And I am exhausted. But I doubt I’d be able to sleep. I’m too wound up.” She took a sip of her drink and said, “What do you think it means, that Buzz is dead too?”
Wheelie shook his head. “I have no idea. You’re the cop.”
She smiled. “I’m not a cop. But, I guess, closer than you. I don’t really know Buzz other than the few times I partied with him and Diane. Like I said, I didn’t care for him. But I have no idea what he did with his free time...who he spent it with, that sort of thing. He was your friend, right? What can you tell me about him?”
“We were buddies,” Wheelie said, “but not ‘friends’ in the real sense of the word. I mean, we hung out, but partying is all we ever did together too, except work. I couldn’t even tell you where he was from, originally...”
“Born and raised in Boston.”
Wheelie smiled. “See, you already know more about him than I do. He was a talker, but most of what came out of his mouth was crude or bullshit. He tried to make himself look better at things than he was, and he pissed a lot of the guys off...but honestly, I can’t think of one of them that would want to kill him. His throat was cut, exactly like...” He re
alized what he’d said before Bri even reacted. She narrowed her tired eyes at him and said:
“Just like Pam’s? Funny how you know it was just like hers...when you weren’t even there.”
“I saw a photo,” he tried.
“Bullshit!” She slammed the glass down on the table. “I saw your face just now. You were there and you’re a fucking liar. Are you a killer too, Wesley?”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t kill her, or Buzz. Fuck.” He ran a hand through his hair, shaking it loose from the tie that bound it at his neck. “I was there,” he said, softly. He knew Dax would skin him alive, but he just wanted this shit to be over with, maybe even if it meant he had to go to jail. He already felt like he was in prison while he waited for them to come and arrest him. “But I swear to you, I didn’t kill her and I don’t know who did.”
“You were there...in the room...when it happened?”
He nodded. “I can’t figure out why I didn’t wake up.” He rubbed his face with both hands like he was trying to wake himself up then and said, “I can’t understand how I slept through the whole fucking, horrible thing. When I did wake up, there was blood everywhere, all over the bed and all over me.”
“Shit. You fucked her and she was killed in bed next to you?”
“No. I mean, yes...we had sex. But then she went to take a bath and I fell asleep. When I woke up it was hours later and she was in the tub...dead.”
Bri stared at his face for what seemed like an eternity. He almost wished that she’d just punch him in the face already and get it over with. Breaking the awkward silence at last she said, “My father texted me this morning before I met you at the diner. The M.E. said Pam had Benedictines in her system.”
Wheelie waited and when she didn’t go on he said, “Like Valium?”
