Red Red Rose

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  I didn’t know if James already had, but to be safe, I did a quick sweep of all the doors and windows making sure everything was locked up tight before crawling into bed and chasing after that elusive sleep. It was a while before my mind quieted enough for me to find it. That damn card they found on Laney kept taunting me.

  The sick freak had put it in her hand. But why? Was he fucking with everyone, or was he trying to tell us he had Emily? Or used to have her.

  No.

  I refused to believe that she wasn’t still alive.

  If this guy had her, then he was keeping her alive for something. There was something about Emily. She was different from the other girls and it had to mean something important.

  Or maybe that was why he hadn’t dumped her. He didn’t want her found.

  No.

  I couldn’t think like that. I wouldn’t give up on her. She was out there. I shuddered to think of what might be happening to her at this very moment. Was she hurt? She had to be scared. The authorities had kept a tight seal on the strangler case, releasing very little about what the girls had endured before their deaths. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know.

  That brought me back to something else I’d heard in the news reports and one of Agent Monroe’s theories. It was presumed that each of the girls went willingly with their abductor. No signs of a fight or struggle. Did Emily know her attacker?

  Did she go with him willingly?

  Did she think he was a friend?

  Someone she could trust? She was upset after her ski trip was ruined. It was an annual trip she’d been taking with friends from high school since they graduated Bellingham High. I never went, even though she’d often invited me. I didn’t know most of them. I graduated high school in Everett. I wished I had gone this time. Then she wouldn’t have come home alone after fighting with Jason. She’d dated him through most of high school and stayed with him through our freshman year of college. He was a real piece of work and their break-up hadn’t been pretty. He did a number on her and I had no doubt he was the source of her reluctance to get in deep with a guy again. I could only imagine what she’d been feeling when she made it home from the mountain.

  The last thing she would have wanted to do was sit home and wallow. Em wasn’t a wallower. She wasn’t a Ben & Jerry’s kind of girl. She was a rum and coke until she couldn’t think straight, let alone feel any pain, kind of girl. Her other drug of choice was men.

  She didn’t always tell me about the guys she was seeing. She knew I didn’t exactly agree with her coping mechanism and loose lifestyle. I thought she was too reckless. I warned her that one of these days she was going to go home with the wrong guy. What if that’s what happened? What if she unknowingly hooked up with a killer? Climbed right into his car, thinking she was going to have a good night, and instead found herself trapped in a nightmare.

  Whoever had her, they were going to be caught. I had to believe that. With the cops and the FBI looking for him, he wouldn’t be able to evade them forever. The FBI knew what they were doing, and maybe this guy had actually done me a favor by putting that business card in Laney’s hand. Before, the police weren’t putting a whole lot of effort into Emily’s case, but now that she might be tied to the rest of them, she was a priority too.

  Maybe that was his mistake. In the books and on TV, the killers always got too cocky, thinking they were untouchable, playing games and taunting the cops. That’s when they’d slip up and usually when they were caught. Maybe Emily was his mistake. Maybe she would be the one to lead them to the killer. If he had her.

  I didn’t know which idea was worse, that she was in the hands of a serial killer, or that there were two dangerous predators out there.

  In reality, I didn’t want to think of just how many were really out there. We probably walked by them on the streets, stood in line behind them at the grocery store, or interacted with them in some way on a daily basis. How well did most of us even really know our neighbors and the people living around us?

  It was frightening.

  Even when this was all over, which I hoped would be soon, I didn’t know if I would ever be able to look at the world the same, without seeing potential monsters everywhere.

  I wondered how guys like Detective Parker and Agent Monroe slept at night. They lived and breathed this stuff. Saw the worst of people and society, day in and day out. I wouldn’t be able to do it without going crazy, or completely losing my faith in humanity. I wasn’t sure that I’d ever be able to watch another episode of Criminal Minds. It was all too real now. Serial killers, MO’s, FBI profiles. It hit home now.

  My dreams were anything but peaceful when sleep finally took pity on me.

  ~~~~

  I lifted my beer glass to my lips, and let the cold brew wash the bitter taste from my mouth. That asshole was with her again tonight. Standing guard. I couldn’t risk sneaking inside with him there. That hadn’t stopped me from paying a visit earlier in the day, when no one was home. I’d been in her room. Touched her things. Laid on her bed. It smelled like her. So sweet.

  Very soon I would have her in my arms and envelop myself in her scent. I’d feel her skin beneath my touch again. Taste her lips. I’d taste all of her. Explore every inch of her body. The body that belonged to me. Had always belonged to me. I would show her and she would remember. She would know that she was mine. She would never leave me again and I wouldn’t let anyone take her from me.

  I knew we were meant to be together. I knew it from the very first time she ever smiled at me. Then she was taken away. Kept from me. I thought she was lost to me forever. I tried to forget her, but every time I closed my eyes I saw her face. I would grow hard just thinking of her. I attempted to sate my need with other females, but none of them could ever come close to her. Not even the ones that reminded me so much of her. They weren’t her. They could never be. They’d all let me down, disappointed me.

  She wouldn’t disappoint me though. I knew it. She was perfect. She’d been perfect back then, and she was still perfect when I found her again. I watched her for a while, to make sure she was still my sweet girl. I learned everything about her, and more than ever I knew I had to have her. She hadn’t known me though that first day I chanced to bump into her. She’d looked at me and smiled, not a drop of recognition on her face. At first I’d been angry. So angry and disappointed, but then I realized I couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t know me anymore. It had been so long since they’d taken her away from me and I hardly looked the same. She had changed too, but I knew underneath, she was still my girl.

  I knew it was my chance to get close to her, to show her how perfect I could be for her, how perfect we could be together, and then when the time was right, I would tell her who I really was, and she would see that we were always meant to be. But then that bitch ruined everything, and messed up my plans. She was nothing and would pay for trying to get in my way. They were all nothing, meant nothing. There was only one who mattered. I would make her see that, see that she was the only one who’d ever meant anything to me.

  The pretty bartender, Dana, approached my table. “Can I take that for you?” When I nodded, she grabbed the plate in front of me. “Another one?” She nodded at my glass that was nearing empty.

  “Please,” I smiled, and she smiled in return.

  “I’ll be right back with it.”

  My eyes fell on the sway of her hips and the curve of her ass as she sauntered away. Very nice. I hadn’t even come in looking for her tonight. I’d just needed to get away, to keep myself from going to her, from doing something foolish and reckless. But I walked in and spotted her immediately. I knew she was the one. So much like the others, even if she wasn’t a college student like I preferred. So much like her. But not her. They could never be her, but they could give me what I needed for now. They could sate this need inside me to control and take.

  I found myself in need of that next fix, just thinking about it. Usually there was more time in between
. I was careful, but with each one I found the need to be stronger. I didn’t want to wait. I’d stumbled right upon her, so why should I wait?

  The inviting smile she wore when she came back with my beer told me it wouldn’t take long to get this one to let her guard down even if she wasn’t a naïve college girl.

  “I get off at nine. If you’re going to stick around, maybe then I could buy you a drink?”

  Not long at all.

  “I wish I could, but I have an early morning. Rain check though?”Even though I wanted her now, it was better this way. Dana couldn’t completely hide the flash of disappointment in her eyes, and I had to raise my glass to my lips to hide my grin. She was making it too easy.

  “Sure, of course,” she still smiled. “I work here most nights.”

  “Then I will definitely be back, Dana.”

  Her smile widened. “I’ll go get your check.”

  Eight

  I felt the wood shift and creak beneath my weight.

  “Oh, shit,” I muttered just before it buckled beneath me and the crash rang out through the house. I landed on my back with a groan. A second later, James shoved open the door to my room. He took one look at the mess and me, lying on my back on the floor, a curtain rod in my hand.

  “What the hell?” He rushed to my side and grabbed my arm, helping me up. “What happened in here?”

  I was still holding the curtain rod in my other hand. “Well, I bought new curtains a few weeks ago and was finally trying to hang them, but it seems my desk wasn’t quite as sturdy as I anticipated. I was standing on it, and then well . . .” I waved my arm at the heap that used to be my desk. It was a simple desk I’d picked up and assembled myself. One of those that was just a bunch of boards with a few different options depending on how you put them together. I’d put together one side with a wider base and shelves and a drawer, and the other was supported by a single board. Guess which side I’d been standing on? Everything toppled that way when it busted. Thankfully my laptop was sitting safely on my bed. Only clothes, a few pictures and a bunch of papers had crashed to the floor with the desk and me.

  I rubbed my sore elbow and tossed the curtain rod, curtain and all, on the bed while James knelt down and examined the desk. “Good news,” he said looking back to me. “You didn’t break it, but whoever put it together did a shit job and used the wrong screws. They’re too small, they didn’t hold it together well. That’s why it came apart when you stood on it.”

  “Oh.”

  “From that look, I take it you’re the one who put it together.”

  “Guilty.”

  “Did it come with the screws?”

  “It came with several screws. A few different sizes, I think.”

  “And I’m assuming directions with a diagram that would show you which screws went where?” he looked at me pointedly.

  “Ummm, maybe. It’s possible however, that I didn’t use the instructions,” I admitted.

  He let out a short laugh. “Of course you didn’t.”

  “Hey, it’s just a desk. It wasn’t like there were that many pieces and it came out looking like the picture.”

  He looked back at the mess and then me.

  “Okay, next time I’ll read the instructions.”

  He rose to his feet. “You got any screws and a screwdriver around here?”

  “We keep a screwdriver in a drawer in the kitchen, but screws, if we have any, are probably out in the garage. That’s where most of the tools are since we don’t have much need for them. They don’t really get used except when my dad or yours is here fixing stuff.” I led him out to the kitchen and retrieved the screwdriver.

  “Show me where the screws are and I’ll see if you’ve got any that will work. Then I can probably fix that desk. Although, I still wouldn’t recommend standing on it again. It’s not nearly solid enough even for someone as tiny as you.”

  “I’m not tiny,” I grumbled. At five-foot-five I wasn’t exactly tall, but I wasn’t that short and I was proud of the few curves I had that kept me from looking like a twelve year old.

  “Sweetheart, you’re small. Like a cute little doll, but don’t worry, you’re very nicely proportioned,” he grinned.

  I lifted my brow. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means, you have nice ‘t’ and ‘a’.”

  I frowned and he laughed. “Tits and ass, Nora.”

  “Oh,” I blushed and then frowned. “What are you doing checking them out?” I wasn’t entirely displeased, but I never thought he noticed me as anything but Emily’s friend, despite the teasing and flirting over the years.

  “I’m a guy, what do you think I’m doing?” He gave me a “duh” look.

  I smacked his chest. “Well you shouldn’t be.”

  “It’s kind of hard not to. In case you hadn’t noticed, you’re gorgeous. Find me a guy who’s not looking, and then you can introduce him to your gay buddy Reggie as I’m sure they’d hit it off.”

  I gave my head an amused shake and rolled my eyes at him, before heading toward the back door. Interesting development, ladies and gentlemen.

  “I’m serious,” he followed. “I promised my sister I would keep my hands off, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be keeping my eyes off.”

  I turned, narrowing my eyes on him. “When did you promise Em?”

  “The first time I was home and she said you were coming for dinner. She made it very clear that you were off limits, and I get why. Sure, you and I could have some fun together,” the dark look in his eyes made it clear he was referring to the horizontal variety, “but then I leave again, off to the next undisclosed location to do God knows what, not knowing if or when I’ll be back. I signed up for that, you didn’t. That’s not a ride I intend to take any woman on. You certainly deserve more than that.”

  He gave my arm a gentle squeeze, his expression warming up my insides and bringing back that crush I thought I’d moved past. Damn, why did he have to be such a good guy on top of being so ridiculously hot?

  “You going to show me to those screws now, or are we going to make out in your kitchen?”

  I actually had to think about it for a second, before I let out a regretful sigh. “The first one.”

  “Okay then, lead the way,” he said with a chuckle.

  Emily’s car mocked us from its spot when we pushed open the small door to the garage. My heart clenched inside my chest and I had to look away from it. I went straight to the drawer under the workbench on the wall and pulled it open. Inside were an assortment of screws and nails.

  “I don’t know if any of these are what you need.” I turned to James, but he was lost in a staring contest with his sister’s car.

  “James?” I said softly. He didn’t look away. Instead, his features pulled into a deeper frown.

  “What the hell is in her back seat?”

  “Huh?” I stepped closer to the car and looked through one of the windows into the back.

  What the hell?

  “That is what I think it is, right?”

  “Yes,” the single word worked its way out of my throat.

  “And what is it doing there?”

  “I don’t know,” I whispered.

  “Is it hers?”

  “I don’t know,” I repeated.

  “I’m guessing it wasn’t there when the police checked out her car?”

  I shook my head. “I looked too, and I definitely would remember if that was there.”

  “Then you better call them now.”

  Screws forgotten, I rushed inside for my phone and the card Agent Monroe had given me. He answered on the second ring.

  “Monroe.”

  “Hi, this is Nora Scott. Are you still in Bellingham?”

  “I’m in Seattle currently, but what do you need Nora? Do you have information?”

  “Maybe,” I hesitated, still working through it in my head. “I just– I found something in Emily’s car. Something that wasn’t there before. I think some
one, maybe the person who took her, left it.”

  “I’ll send detective Parker right over.”

  I had to drag James from the garage after I hung up with Agent Monroe. We waited inside the house, but I could tell that he was going crazy. Honestly I was too, but we both knew better than to open up that car and disturb something that might be evidence.

  It felt like forever, but was really only twenty minutes, before a car pulled into the drive, followed closely by a second. We met them out front. Detective Parker climbed from the first vehicle, a dark sedan, and two officers climbed from a squad car. I recognized them immediately as Ben and Officer Munez. We didn’t waste any time leading them to the garage and unlocking Emily’s car with her spare key.

  “What the hell?” Parker muttered. He tugged on a pair of gloves before pulling open the door and reaching into the backseat. “Munez, you guys combed the car when the initial report was filed, no?”

  “Yeah, we did. That wasn’t there.”

  “Hand me an evidence bag.” Parker looked up at me next, but my eyes kept going to the long, thick locks of blonde hair tied up in a red bow. “Any idea when this showed up?”

  I shook my head. “I haven’t been out here since you guys searched it. I don’t know when I would have found it if we hadn’t come out here looking for screws today. Will you guys be able to tell if it’s Emily’s?” The color and length matched. If it was Em’s, then it looked like someone had shaved her entire head.

  “It’s hard to say. The chances of getting DNA from hair are slim unless the follicles are attached, but the FBI has better testing equipment in their labs. If there is any DNA, they’ll be able to pull it. I’m also going to have Munez and Dawson dust for prints on the car and the handle of the door on your garage and see what we turn up. At this point we also have to consider that the reason this guy had access to your garage and the car is because he has your friend’s keys. No keys were found in the purse or the dumpster, yet you reported that you came home and discovered her car in the garage, but her purse and keys were not inside the house.”