Unhallowed Ground

by Kristen Gupton

  “No, I’m all right. I stopped to see Kelly before coming over here. He made me pizza rolls.” Dennis forced up a smile and shook his head. “I heard you all went out for ice cream.”

  “Yeah, Dani promised him some earlier, so we were just making good on it.” Ryan put his hands on his hips.

  Dennis parted his lips to respond, but a stain on the side of Ryan’s white tee shirt caught his attention. While he’d had his suspicions about the nature of the activity around town already, his recent meeting with Kelly hadn’t helped his paranoia.

  His spine went tight, and he reached to put his right hand against the gun hanging from his belt. “Ryan, are you hurt? Pull up your shirt.”

  Though he’d been subtle about it, Ryan still noticed Dennis’ move for his sidearm. “Scratched myself climbing around the engine compartment of the machine we went out to work on today. It’s nothing.”

  “At the cemetery?” Dennis asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah. We were just trying to get a jump on the repairs.”

  “Ryan, pull up your shirt and show me,” Dennis ordered, all the friendliness gone from his tone.

  “Dennis! What the hell?” Dani came closer but stopped short of getting to Ryan’s side.

  “Just do it, Ryan. Nothing’s wrong, but I need to see what happened to you,” Dennis ordered, not allowing his attention to wander from the other man.

  “Jesus, fine.” Ryan reached down and jerked up the side of his shirt where he’d been cut during his fall.

  Dennis didn’t come any closer. If it had looked like a simple scratch or small wound, he would have let it go. However, the cut was a full seven inches long below his ribs, the margins of it badly bruised and inflamed. He couldn’t tell if it was a penetrating abdominal wound, but until he could determine if it was, he wasn’t willing to take any chances. From a distance, it looked a little too much like the wounds he’d seen on both Grace and Robert.

  “Ryan, I want you to turn around real slow and put your hands behind your back.” Dennis reached back to unclip the handcuffs from his belt with his left hand, his right now firmly around his gun’s grip.

  The color blanched from Ryan’s face. “What the hell for? I haven’t done shit!”

  “I’m not arresting you, but I need to just make sure we’re all safe,” Dennis replied. “Just do it. I’ll have you loose in a minute or two.”

  Dani brought her hands up toward her mouth. “Dennis, Ryan hasn’t done anything. Robert was already dead before we ever got home this morning!”

  “This isn’t about Robert.” Dennis visibly tensed his jaw. “Ryan, please, just do it. I need to check that cut out, and I’d feel a hell of a lot better doing so if you were restrained. I’m not trying to be an asshole for the fun of it.”

  Ryan glanced down at his wound before meeting Dennis’ eyes again. “For fuck’s sake! I just got caught on a bolt when I fell out of the engine compartment! Kelly put this shit into your head, didn’t he?”

  “I’m not telling you again,” Dennis replied.

  Ryan switched his gaze to Dani. While he’d expected to be met with shock or worry, her expression was oddly blank. A familiar knot started to form in his chest. He knew when he’d gotten hurt, and he was damned sure nothing had crawled into him since, but it had happened at the cemetery...

  Ryan’s shoulders rounded, and he slowly turned around, placing his hands behind his back. The burn grew in the center of his chest, his breathing increasingly restricted.

  Dennis moved in close and quickly cuffed him. “All right, turn around.”

  He did as asked, feeling heat on his cheeks. “This is bullshit. I need my inhaler.”

  “Dani, can you get it?” Dennis asked, reaching to pull Ryan’s shirt up.

  Ryan looked past Dennis over at her. “In my coat.”

  However, she stared back at him, not moving.

  Dennis stared at the wound on Ryan’s side. While it was nasty, it didn’t appear to go as deep as the injuries he’d seen on Grace or Robert. Satisfied, he moved back around Ryan and undid the cuffs.

  Ryan pulled his arms back around and crossed them over his chest. Dani remained where she’d been, making no move to get his inhaler.

  Dennis hung the cuffs on his belt again. “Sorry about that, but I had to make sure.”

  Ryan rolled his eyes and turned away from both of them, going to grab his coat from where it hung near the door.

  Dennis looked at his cousin. “Are you all right? Why didn’t you get his inhaler for him?”

  She shook her head and averted her gaze toward the floor. “I didn’t want to move until you were sure he was okay.”

  He leaned closer. “Are you all right?”

  Dani shook her head and huffed. “I’m fine. He’s been a little hard to deal with today. I didn’t even consider that he’d been hurt, or that it at all related to what happened to everyone else.”

  Ryan could overhear what they were saying, but he preoccupied himself with using his inhaler and easing the tension in his chest. Anger stirred within him, but an outburst likely wasn’t in his best interest given the circumstances.

  Feeling a little better physically, he put the inhaler back in his coat and turned to face the others again. “Dani, I’ve been with you almost all day. You know damned good and well there’s nothing wrong with me.”

  She avoided his gaze. “You and Kelly went out to the cemetery without me earlier. I know you said your dad was with you, but what do I know?”

  “You’ve been with both of us afterward! You know there’s nothing wrong with Kelly or me!” he shot back.

  Deputy Bryant held up his hands. “Look, I didn’t come by here to get the two of you at each other’s throats. I know you’ve both been through a lot, all right? Now, calm down, so I can get going without feeling like I’ve ruined the night for you both.”

  Despite his earlier relief in being allowed back into the house, Ryan’s anger wasn’t willing to be pushed aside so easily. He turned back and jerked his coat down from the hook, throwing it around his shoulders.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Dani asked.

  “Home. I’m not playing these games with you, Dani.” He shoved his arms into his coat and turned around to face the others. “I’m probably ending our relationship in doing so, but I’m not going to be treated like shit for doing literally nothing wrong.”

  “Come on, Ryan, it’s not her fault I showed up and stirred this shit up between the two of you,” Dennis said, taking a step closer.

  “It’s not your fault, Dennis. Honestly, she’s...I don’t know. Madgie was the one here alone this morning when things with Robert went down. If there’s anyone you should have checked for an injury, it should have been her.” Ryan fished his keys out of his pocket. “For that matter, Dani was here alone with Madgie after I went to help dad earlier. Why don’t you have a look at her?”

  Dennis’ eyebrows went up and he looked down at his cousin. “Were you alone here with her today?”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Dani pulled up one side of her shirt, but there was nothing to be seen.

  Dennis nodded, satisfied. “You’re fine.”

  “What about Madgie?” Ryan asked, waving a hand toward the stairs.

  “You’re not going up there to wake her up!” Dani protested.

  Dennis frowned, looking at the stairs. “I really should check her out.”

  “Because of their crazy conspiracy crap?” she asked, her hands going to her hips. “Dennis, you’re supposed to be the voice of reason!”

  “You mean to tell me you don’t think what’s been happening in the past few days isn’t at least a little weird?” Dennis asked her.

  She pursed her lips and growled in her throat. “Dennis, so help me God if you go and bother her, I’ll report you for coming in here without a search warrant!”

  Deputy Bryant took a step back. “First off, you invited me in, and secondly, you’re family, and I’m allowed to make a welfare check o
n my own relatives, aren’t I?”

  She didn’t know the legalities of it either way, her mouth snapping shut.

  Dennis glanced over at Ryan. “Did grandma seem fine to you earlier?”

  “Honestly?” He shook his head. “No. She’s been off all day, and she outright lied about being at the bakery this morning when she sure as shit wasn’t. Maybe she’s just goofy from the car wreck the other night and whacking her head. I don’t know.”

  “I’m going up.” Dennis turned away from them and headed up the stairs.

  Dani stared Ryan down for several moments before spinning to run after Dennis as he jogged up the stairs.

  Ryan glanced back at the door, knowing he should take the opportunity to get out and away. Either things with Dani were bad enough that they’d be unsalvageable, or they were damn close to it, and giving her some distance might be what he needed to do.

  A scream from upstairs a second later dashed those plans, and Ryan sprinted for the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  Chapter

  55

  Ryan reached the top of the stairs, his shoes squeaking against the wood floor as he skidded to a stop. The lingering tension in his chest from his earlier asthma attack worsened, but he didn’t immediately go for his inhaler again.

  Dani and Dennis were both inside Madgie’s room, and he went inside, the rusty smell of blood in the air.

  The sheets were in disarray on Madgie’s bed, her formless body splayed out on the floor. She was undressed, her normally pasty skin smeared with swaths of dark blood.

  Dennis was crouched beside her, looking for any signs of life. However, the bluish hue that had overtaken her complexion was a solid indicator she’d been dead for hours.

  Dani stood on the opposite side of Madgie’s body from Dennis, unmoving. Her eyes remained fixed on her dead grandmother.

  Ryan went to stand beside her, unable to lift his gaze from the corpse. There was a drying puddle of blood on the floor beside Madgie, and it looked to have come from a wound somewhere on the left side of her body. However, the injury itself wasn’t visible, lost somewhere between her multiple folds of fat.

  Dennis reached up to his shoulder, activating his radio. He ordered an ambulance out of instinct, though it was obviously far too late.

  Ryan didn’t say anything, finally dragging his attention from Madgie’s body and looking down at Dani beside him. He put an arm around her shoulders, but she didn’t respond, continuing to simply stare at Madgie.

  Dennis stood up across from them. “When was the last time you saw her?”

  Ryan shook his head. “I haven’t seen her since this morning before I went to go help my dad at the worksite.”

  Dani didn’t reply.

  Dennis bent forward and waved a hand in her line of sight. “Dani! When did you last see her?”

  Her eyes slowly panned up to meet her cousin’s expectant gaze. “She came up here to lay down when Ryan left earlier. I didn’t bother her afterward. Given all that happened this morning, I just figured she was sleeping.”

  Dennis shook his head and scanned around the room. While the sheets on the bed were stained with blood and disheveled, nothing else in the room looked disturbed. The blood on the floor had been smeared away from her body, but the trail didn’t go far, and there were no visible tracks in it.

  “I know we combed through this house this morning, but is there anywhere someone may have hidden from us?” Dennis asked, switching his gaze between them.

  Ryan shrugged. The old house had its share of odd closets and attic access points. “You think the person who killed Robert is still here and did this?”

  “You both left for a while. Whoever it was might have gotten out then, but unless one of the two of you did this, I don’t know a better explanation,” Dennis said. “I guess they could have returned if they thought she saw something this morning, but...”

  “We should get out of here.” Dani glanced up at Ryan. “Crime scene stuff, right? We shouldn’t be here messing it up.”

  Dennis sighed. While he wanted to look around the room and the rest of the house, Dani wasn’t wrong. However, she and Ryan had been the only ones admittedly in the house all day, and he didn’t want either of them out of his eyesight.

  Were this any other crime scene, he would have instinctively acted, but with it being family, he was conflicted. While he hadn’t been as close to Madgie as Dani had always been, she’d still been his grandmother, too. Though he’d seen his share of violent deaths in recent days, this one finally broke through his façade. A week of exhaustion and stress collapsed in on him, and he felt an unwelcomed burn in his eyes. If there had been anyone else to call in, he would have, but his relief had been pulled back to their own station already.

  Ryan and Dani likely weren’t going to be a flight risk, and he didn’t believe for a moment either of them had done it.

  He sighed and waved a hand toward the bedroom door. “The two of you go back down. Try not to touch anything. You can let the ambulance crew in when they get here. I need to call the coroner.”

  Ryan nodded and pulled his arm away from Dani’s shoulders. He waited for her to move, so he could follow, but she didn’t shift. Not willing to push his luck, he opted to say nothing, and he headed for the door, hoping she would follow.

  He was halfway down the stairs before he heard Dani coming along behind him, Dennis having told her a second time to go.

  Ryan stopped in the middle of the living room and waited for Dani to join him.

  However, she walked right past him and off into the kitchen.

  He dug his inhaler out of his pocket and took a hit off of it before going to follow her.

  She stopped in front of the refrigerator and opened the door, staring inside.

  Ryan moved behind her, struggling with what to say.

  Dani closed the fridge door without taking anything and spun around to face him. Her expression was slack, and there were no tears evident despite what they’d just seen.

  “...are you okay?” Ryan asked, his stomach tensing with mounting anxiety.

  “For now,” she said, going over to drop into a chair at the kitchen table.

  He didn’t get a chance to respond before he heard the ambulance come up the driveway, its siren soon falling silent. Ryan looked to see the living room flashing red from the lights outside, and he turned to go let them in.

  Dennis appeared at the top of the stairs and waved them up.

  Ryan returned to the kitchen, finding Dani exactly where he’d left her. He felt like he should do something, but he didn’t have any idea what.

  She sighed and looked over at him as he lingered in the doorway, no hint of tears in her eyes.

  “I’m really sorry about Madgie,” he said, forcing the words out over the lump in his throat. While he may not have always liked the old woman, she’d been a constant fixture in his life. And, aside from recent days, she’d always been relatively good to him once she’d figured out he and Dani were going to stay together for a while.

  She averted her attention elsewhere and gave a small shrug. “There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

  He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. This wasn’t the reaction he’d expected at all. In fact, Dani had been far more shaken up by Robert’s body in the back yard that morning. While he figured she was in shock, and rightfully so, this didn’t seem right.

  “Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked, his instincts telling him not to get any closer.

  Her eyes snapped back toward him, the corners of her mouth pulling down. “You’re not really of any use to me right now.”

  Ryan stood up straight from the wall. He didn’t know if she was blaming him for what had happened, or if she was still mad at him from before. Either way, his initial compulsion to leave swept back in.

  She lifted a hand and waved it in his direction, urging him to go.

  “I know this is some serious shit, and the whole day
...week has been jacked up, but...” Ryan shook his head and slipped a hand into his coat pocket, finding his keys inside. “Call me if you want me to come back or whatever. Tell Dennis I just went home if he needs to give me the third degree about this.”

  “Whatever,” she sighed.

  He nodded to himself and went for the front door. Ryan gave a passing thought to going upstairs to ask Dennis’ permission to go, but surely he wasn’t a suspect, and if Dani wanted him out of the house, he wasn’t going to stay.

  Chapter

  56

  Ryan didn’t go home. Though he’d initially headed in that direction, he ended up going past his own street and making his way toward Kelly’s house.

  Before he reached the front door, it was pulled open from the other side, Kelly standing there dazed from waking up.

  “Don’t tell me you and Dani are at it again,” Kelly said, standing aside to let Ryan in.

  “I don’t know what in the hell is going on between us, but I’ve got some really bad news,” Ryan said, tugging off his jacket and hanging it near the door before moving into the living room.

  Kelly’s gut instantly twisted, and he followed. His mind was a little sluggish as he’d fallen asleep watching television before hearing Ryan’s car door out front.

  “I don’t think we needed any more bad news,” Kelly said, stepping around Ryan to land back on the couch.

  Ryan dropped down beside him but leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Madgie’s dead, Kel.”

  “What?” He turned sideways. “How?”

  “How do you think?” Ryan said, closing his eyes.

  Kelly’s initial instinct was to say heart attack, but given recent events, he knew better. “Goddamnit, don’t you tell me she cut herself open.”

  “Well, I don’t know if she did it to herself or if someone else did it,” Ryan replied, leaning back and slowly turning his head toward Kelly. “She was on the floor of her room, though. There was blood everywhere.”

  “When did it happen?” Kelly asked.