Sawyer

by Kathi S. Barton

  The man laughed and Sasha smiled. It wasn’t often that anyone would tolerate her sense of humor. “What can you tell me about Mrs. Riddle? Was she alive when put in the water? I mean, as I said, I know nothing other than her name you’ve given me.”

  “If she had any injuries, they’re long gone now. She does have strangulation marks around her throat, but that’s not what killed her. She said that he dropped her in alive, and that his last words to her were to enjoy the view. He’s a sick fuck, if you ask me.” He laughed again, and the young man that had given her this number pointed to the door. “I’m being asked to leave here. The captain, or whatever is the equivalent of a boss here, is not happy about my trying to get him to find this woman.”

  “All right. I’m going to ask you if you can meet me at the café on Maple. There are a lot of people there at this time of the day, and you won’t have to worry about me hurting you.” She said that she carried a gun. “Does that work with the dead too?”

  “Usually. They sometimes forget that they’re dead.” She thought about the meeting. “Look buddy, I don’t do things like this. I’ve been beaten to shit before when someone said meet me some place, it’s crowded, I won’t hurt you. I gave you all that I know.”

  “I’m sorry that there are pieces of shit out there. But I swear to you on the life of my unborn child that I will not harm you in any way.” There might not be a child, her mind screamed at her. “I can even bring my daughter with me. She’ll just be glad to meet someone else that’s not really human.”

  “All right. But if you come too close to me, at any time, I will shoot you. What are you, anyway?” He told her what he was. “Of course. I hate cats. A great deal. You come too close and you’ll be a dead one, got it?”

  “I do. I swear. Molly and I will be there soon. She’ll be the only kid without a cell phone in front of her face, much to her shame.” She laughed again and hung up.

  Sasha didn’t like people all that much, living or dead. She hadn’t had a good friend in longer than she could remember. And forget dating. It was difficult enough holding onto a relationship without the dead demanding your attention all the time. The one and only time she’d ever had sex had gotten her where she was today. A ghost helper.

  Sitting at one of the outdoor tables, she understood what Sawyer had said. Everyone, babies included, had a device of some sort in front of their faces. One baby, still in a car seat, had one hanging above his little head while he was catching a nap while the thing blared on. Christ, she hated those things too. Devices, she told herself, not babies.

  “Hi.” She looked at the beautiful young girl. “Dad said that if you want an ice cream, he’ll let me have one. Even if you don’t eat it, could you please get one too? I just got back with my GGMa from the cruise, and the ice cream was horrid. I know what you’re thinking too—it’s hard to mess up ice cream—but you’d be wrong. So, do you want one?”

  “Yes. And I can tell you’re related to your dad. You have the same sense of humor, don’t you?” The girl brightened up as if she’d been holding a bulb and it turned on. Sasha had to smile with her. “You and your dad, you get ice cream here often?”

  The man at the counter yelled for Molly, and she told him that she’d be right back. Watching the two of them together, she loved that they were so close. Sasha wasn’t close to her family, and would never be again. which was fine by her. Molly yelled and asked her what ice cream she wanted, and Sawyer rolled his eyes and told her to go ask.

  “I want chocolate,” Sasha yelled back, and got the thumbs up from Molly. She could easily fall in love with this kid.

  When they sat down, she looked at the monster ice cream that she’d been handed.

  “I didn’t want you to leave until we got to know each other. My wife, Raven, she said that I would scare people off by offering them food. But it’s not gotten me killed so far.” Sasha licked her cone. “Okay, do you see anyone around here? The reason I ask is, we have two missing teenagers. The department thinks that they’ve run away from home. I don’t.”

  “How old?” She didn’t look around too much, but just took a general glance around the area. “There are four here, both hanging out with one of the other. Something you should know; they can’t talk to each other unless they died together.”

  “One is sixteen, the other seventeen. Not that it matters, but the girl is older. They’d be wearing, I think, prom clothing.” She nodded at him. “I hate that. I bet you do as well. How do I find out anything about them? I’m assuming that you don’t want to draw attention to yourself.”

  “I don’t. Not from the living, but the dead. They know what I am, just not much more than that. Like what I look like. I’ve never asked if I give off dead people vibes or not, but how the hell does one get lessons on this crap? Molly, you’re not going to see them. Sorry, chicky.” Molly nodded and went back to her ice cream. “I can talk to them here, but I can tell you something about them. I’d say car crash. He has a nasty wound on his head. The girl has her neck broken. They were neither wearing seat belts that I can tell.”

  “How do you know that part?” She told him. “Okay, no marks. I see marks on them when I see them, but I didn’t know what you saw.”

  “I see them as they were in death. I don’t get a pretty picture of them, just the whole thing. The boy, he has some water on his pant legs. The girl hasn’t any shoes on nor a long dress, so I can’t tell. Perhaps a body of water.” He was writing things down while she spoke. Molly would ask a question or two, but nothing more than that. “Hold on, Sawyer, they figured out that I can help them.”

  Not only did she get their names, Paul and Jenny, but she was able to tell Sawyer where their car was. Paul told her that he thought that someone had hit them in the rear, but he didn’t know for sure. Then they just disappeared. Getting help was all she was able to do for them.

  “Can I pay you for this? There is a reward for finding them.” Sasha said she was good. “I’m sorry that you have to go through all this. But I do appreciate the help. Their parents still hold out hope that they’re alive. This will be hard on them, but they will have closure.”

  After he left her, leaving his phone number for her if she needed anything else, Sasha sat there for a time and ate her ice cream. No one bothered her, for which she was grateful. She just enjoyed the day, and didn’t think about anything but the chocolate cone that was bigger than her head.

  ~*~

  Chandler was going back to college in January. He was also taking some classes online. He’d already taken a couple of them over the last few weeks and passed them, but now he was ready to dig his teeth into the real stuff.

  “You ready for it?” Chandler told his mom that he was as ready as he’d ever be. “I know you’ll do just fine, Chandler. You’re a bright man.”

  Chandler thanked her. “I don’t have to take the entire load. I get credit for doing the work around here, like birthing the animals and working with Doctor Joe when he needs it. They said that he thought I’d do a good job too. And he said that I can work for him while I’m going to school. That’ll help.”

  “I bet it will.” Mom sat with him. “Did you know that Raven paid off all our bills for your dad and I? I’m telling you that so that if you need help with books and stuff, we can set some money aside for you if you need it.”

  “Sawyer is helping me out with that too. He’s even giving me his old car so that I can have something to drive back and forth to class. I couldn’t have done this without their help.” Mom didn’t move, so he knew that she had something else on her mind. “I even was able to afford some new clothing, thanks to Raven and her letting me go through some of the things she has for sale. I think the rest of my brothers did it as well.”

  “You aren’t going to leave me, are you, Chandler?” He asked her what she meant. “I don’t think I want to think about the day when you boys leave home. I know that Sawye
r is only about twenty minutes away, but he doesn’t live here. If another one of you leave me, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  “Mom, you will always have us around for you, whatever you need.” She said that she knew, but she was feeling low because her boys, she called them, were leaving the nest. “Mom, we should have been kicked from the nest a long time ago. The only way that I’d leave here is when I find me a mate. And I don’t foresee that happening, do you?”

  “I hope you find someone to love you. The greatest joy in the world is having someone share your life with you. Why, while there are times I want to brain your father, I don’t want him to leave me. I’d die, I think.” He told her not to talk like that. “Honey, it’s going to happen someday. Sooner for me, because I’m older than you, but we all die.”

  Chandler kissed her hand and told her that he loved her. “You’re the best woman I’ve ever met, Mom. If you leave me, in any way, I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.”

  “You’ll be just fine.” She started to stand up and looked back at him. “Did you hear that they found Paul and Jenny? Poor kids. Both of them dead. Sawyer told me that he thinks they were hit from behind. There were tire marks, he said, but not from the driver that hit them. Their poor mothers must be dying about now.”

  Mom started a pot of water for iced tea. Chandler told her what he knew, which wasn’t much. Just that they’d been almost in the water, and that would have made it impossible for them to have been found.

  “Sawyer said that they weren’t driving fast, it looks like to him, but they’re going to do a lot of investigations before they let this go.” He thought of something else that his brother had told him. “Sawyer seems to think that the police should have done a better job of looking for them instead of thinking that they just ran off. Perhaps they could have saved them, you think?”

  “I don’t know. Horrible business, being a cop.” He agreed with her. “Are you staying for dinner tonight? We’re having burgers and brats. I just love that new grill we got. Just go out and turn it on. No more waiting on the charcoal to heat up enough. Your dad acts like he invented the thing, he’s having so much fun with it. Oh, and to think that next year we’ll have a little baby to have fun out there with. Your father is already looking at plans to get a swing set for the little one. I’m so glad that they didn’t wait to tell us about the baby until later. I’m so excited about being a grandma again. With little Molly, we’ll have two.”

  They’d told them about the baby last Sunday, as it was getting difficult for them to keep the secret. Chandler didn’t think that would be anything he’d be able to keep to himself either.

  “I heard that you were having a grill out every night.” She said that they were. “Good for you guys. Next year I’ll see about getting you a nice picnic table so we can eat out there. We still have all that wood from when Dad built that shed out back.”

  “Oh, I’d love that. And with the new baby coming next year, I’ll just be out there every day. I’m going to show her or him how to make jam too.” Mom put the tea bags in and turned on her timer before sitting down again. “I did something silly. I asked Sawyer if he would allow me to watch the baby. I thought they’d have nannies or something. They are, but they want us to have the baby whenever we want. Even if we had to take him or her from the nanny. Raven called me a few minutes later to tell me that I was going to be her helper in this. It’s been a long time since she had a baby in the house, and she’s worried too much has changed.”

  “I bet you’ve started reading up on it, haven’t you? About the changes a baby will need.” Mom laughed and said that she had a stack of books to read now. “Mom, you raised us up pretty well without books. I’m sure that you’ll do just fine.”

  After hugging his mom again, he went out to the yard. He really wanted to get him a place of his own, but he thought that after talking to Mom, he’d wait a bit longer. With Sawyer not living at home anymore, there was certainly more hot water than there had been before.

  Quincy pulled into the drive just as Chandler thought about going into town. “I was hoping that someone would be here. Want to go for a long run? I sure need it after signing up for classes today. Christ, I had no idea there would be so many to choose from.” Chandler said he’d done that yesterday. “Do you believe this? We’re able to go back to college and get a degree in what we wanted. I’m going to think of a way to pay back Raven and Sawyer. They turned the tide for us, I think.”

  They stripped down and took off running after shifting. Chandler hadn’t been on a hard run in a while, and it felt good.

  There were a good three or four miles from the house when he heard someone crying. Sneaking up behind the sound and where it was coming from, he was startled to see a baby lying next to a woman. Even from where he was, Chandler could tell that the woman was dead.

  Sawyer, I have an issue here. He asked him if it could wait. Nope. I found a body by the fence that divides the Little land from the Marks land. There’s a newborn here too, and she’s freezing. I’m taking her back to Mom.

  Okay, but don’t touch anything else. I’ll come by the house before I have you take me out to where she is. He said that he could do that, and gently picked the baby up in his mouth. Chandler, just be careful. If she was murdered, then he might come back to take care of the baby too.

  I have Quincy with me. We’ll meet you back at the house. Quincy asked if he should shift so as not to hurt the baby. I thought of that. But it’ll be slower moving. And she’s very cold now. I’ll contact Mom and have her get something warm to wrap her in.

  Chandler got back to the house in a few minutes. The baby was crying, but it was weak and he could feel her getting colder with each passing minute. Mom took her from him and wrapped her up in a blanket.

  “I asked Sawyer if I should bathe her, to warm her up in some water, and he said to go ahead. He’s afraid that whoever did this to her momma will come back for her.” Mom was cooing at the child. “I have a bottle up there in the cabinet, Chandler. After you shift and dress, come back in here and help me out with her, won’t you? Wesley, go out and milk old Margaret. The fresh milk will be good for her, I think.”

  After they finished getting what Mom wanted, they watched the little girl while she fed from the bottle. She was so tiny, Chandler realized that he could almost hold her in one hand. When the police showed up, he met them at the door and led them to the kitchen where Mom was. All they did was look at her and asked where the body was. That sort of pissed him off, but he held his temper.

  Sawyer arrived a little while later. He had a woman with him, but they were following Quincy out to the fence line before he could meet her. She was a tiny thing too.

  Molly came rushing in the house just as Mom was burping the baby. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she, Grandma?” Mom told Molly that she was, but tiny. “I wonder if I was that little. Mom said that I was over nine pounds. Is she that small?”

  “No, honey. I think she’s closer to only being about six or seven pounds. I asked Sawyer about it, and he said that your mom was bringing us some diapers and such for her. We’ll get her all cleaned up, and then we’ll dress her when your mom gets here.”

  Chandler noticed that the baby still had her umbilical cord intact, and she was a good color now that she’d had some dinner. There was a small birthmark on her foot, but other than that, she seemed perfect. Helping Mom give her a sponge bath—she told him babies couldn’t have a real bath until the umbilical cord fell off—he had a moment or two of fright when he nearly let her slip from his hands. She was slippery, as well as so small.

  It took them about an hour to make sure that she was going to be all right. Molly started calling her Pip for some reason, and that started them all calling her that. He was beginning to worry about his brother and the woman. They’d been gone a long time, he thought.

  Mom asked him to rock Pip because she needed to get din
ner started. The fried potatoes smelled heavenly, and he found himself talking to Pip about what he was going to have for dinner. When she opened her eyes and looked at him, Chandler had a feeling that she could understand every word that he said.

  “I’m being silly.” She just stared at him. “My brother should have come here to take care of you. He is the one that will be taking care of little people like you. Of course, I don’t think it’s much different than helping a pig come into the world. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was calling you a pig, but just that they’re little and slippery too.”

  Rocking her in his arms, he wondered if this was what it felt like to have a child of your own. When Sawyer came back, he had more information on Pip’s mother, but the woman, whoever she had been, had left.

  Perhaps he’d look her up. She might be lonely, he told himself after Sawyer told them that she’d just moved to town. Chandler would have to beat his brothers to asking her out or he’d never get the chance. Not many women came to town that were unmarried anymore. And he’d like to go out on a date again. It had been a long time, he thought.

  Chandler was excited about the new turns in his life. He just hoped that he did well in college. He wanted that more than anything right now.

  Before You Go…

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  Kathi Barton, winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio with her husband Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband who is an artist and potter.