I grabbed a couple water bottles and tossed them in my pack, just in case I was gone longer than I thought. Then I let Wookie out to pee and filled up his bowls.
“As much as I know you’d love to see Denny, you can’t come with me,” I told him as I reached into the cupboard for a treat. “This I do solo.”
I closed the bathroom door and as well as the doors to all the bedrooms, making sure all the windows were locked tight. Then I tossed a chew treat to Wookie, set the house alarm and locked the house firmly behind me. I glanced up at the motion-activated camera pointed in the carport and gave it a wave that was, no doubt, blocked by the spiderweb.
Clean the camera, came Garrett’s texted reply.
I sent him a selfie with me sticking my tongue out first, then I grabbed the push broom and gave the spider’s residence the heave-ho.
I clicked the fob to unlock the Jeep but didn’t hear the unlock sound. Maybe I hadn’t locked it, which was stupid on my part. As I opened the driver’s door, a high-pitched squeal left my throat like I’d seen a mouse. Or a ghost. Instead, what I saw was a bottle of wine poised precariously in the cup holder in the car’s console. I dropped my pack to the ground and stood there staring at the bottle.
“What the actual hell!”
I looked all over my yard and down the drive. I spun around and around until I was completely dizzy, checking for someone nearby but the only answer was chirping sparrows.
My fingers shook as I stood a few feet away from the open car door and dialed Garrett’s number. He picked up immediately.
“You okay?”
“There’s a bottle of wine in my Jeep.”
He paused and I could almost hear his wheels turning with questions.
“I didn’t put it there,” I explained. “When I went to my Jeep, it was there. In the cup holder. Just mocking me.”
“How did it—”
“I don’t know!” I cried. “Someone broke into my vehicle and crammed a cold bottle of Yakima Valley sauvignon blanc into my cup holder!”
I stared at it. The green bottle didn’t quite fit into the holder meant for cola cans and to-go coffees. It sat there dripping with condensation and slightly tilted toward me, begging me to pick it up, unscrew the lid and guzzle it down.
“Is anyone there?” His voice was serious and business now.
“No.” I blew out a breath. “Not that I can see.” I was angry now. “Fat lot of good your stupid cameras did when they didn’t go off to show someone breaking into my car and—”
“Look, I’ve called the local law. You’ve got that can of bear spray in your pack, right? Take it out and keep it in your hand.”
I fumbled in the outside pocket of my pack and took out the can. “Got it.”
“Good. I want you to go back into the house and lock your doors but first send me pictures of the Jeep. Are the windows broken? Does the door show any signs of being pried open?”
“Hang on...” I used my phone to snap pictures and send them to him, then returned to the call. “It wasn’t forced open. I’m going back inside the house.”
I was walking back to the house now, my legs feeling rubbery with fear. I couldn’t get my key back into the dead bolt fast enough. Wookie greeted me like I’d been gone a year and my breathing came out fast.
“Take a deep breath,” Garrett said in my ear. “Lock the door behind you, reset the alarm and just breathe.”
I did as he said and stared out my kitchen window at the Jeep that looked somehow threatening now with the driver’s door flung open as if it was waiting for a driver.
“How could that happen?”
“Did you leave the door unlocked?”
“No.” Then I corrected, “I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t always lock it when I’m at home.”
“And your spare keys are in the junk drawer?”
I crossed the kitchen and opened the drawer that held pens, tape, a couple screwdrivers and the flotsam of life. The keys were missing.
I let out a small moan.
“Your spare keys aren’t there?”
“No-o-o!” I sank down to sit on the cold tile floor. Wookie came over and flopped down next to me, putting his head in my lap.
We both knew what this meant. When the house was broken into that person stole my spare keys so, not only did they have the keys for my Jeep, they also had the keys to my house. I wondered if the cameras had deterred them from coming back inside.
“You know what bothers me the most?” he asked.
“That whoever did this knows me.”
“Yes.”
They knew I was an alcoholic and knew my personal choice was wine. The bottle was a sarcastic taunt.
Garrett was talking but I was only thinking about that bottle balanced precariously in the cup holder and suddenly it felt silly to be so upset and afraid.
“They could’ve killed me.”
Garrett paused in whatever he’d been saying before beginning, “Look, Julie, don’t—”
“He could’ve just hunkered down in the back seat and killed me when I climbed in the vehicle, or hidden behind the bushes and shot me or broken into the house at night and strangled me—”
“Stop!” Garrett shouted. “You need to calm down.”
“I’m perfectly calm.” And I was. “They could’ve killed me but instead they left a bottle of wine like they’re a bully making fun of me.” I could feel anger replacing fear. “I’m going to chuck the bottle in the trash and go about my day. Cancel the cops.”
“No! First of all, we’re going to want prints off that bottle. Second, you don’t know what else has been done. Maybe your Jeep was rigged and—”
“Nobody stuck a bomb in this car and rigged it to blow because there’s no way they would’ve left me this present if that was their intention, right?” I was pleased with my own deductive reasoning. “Listen, Mr. FBI, you know I’m right.”
When he didn’t reply, I told him to hang on a second.
I grabbed a paper towel from the roll under the sink, disarmed the alarm and walked outside with Wookie at my side. I walked to the car, and carefully picked up the bottle of wine from the very top. Then I walked it over to the side of the house, now within range of the motion detector camera and set it down on the steps. I might have licked my lips and my fingers might have shaken just a bit as I held the bottle, but I was able to walk back to the Jeep.
I could hear Garrett’s voice shouting from the phone in my pocket and when I brought it to my ear he was upset.
“You’re just going to leave it there?” Garrett demanded.
“Yup. Your cop can dust it for fingerprints or take it into evidence but I’ve got work to do in Blaine and—”
“What are you going up there for?”
I could feel his worry creep over the phone.
“Don’t get upset...” I began. I whistled for Wookie, brought him in the house and again set the alarm and locked up.
“Why would I get upset?” he demanded, his voice already going up.
“I’m meeting Denny for coffee,” I replied, hurriedly adding, “Only to ask him questions about Ebba since he was the one who recommended me to her.”
He was quiet and I wasn’t sure if this was the jealous boyfriend kind of quiet, or the worried FBI silence.
“I’d feel better if you put off that meeting until I could drive you.”
It was probably both kinds of quiet.
“I’ll be fine.” I took a breath and climbed inside the Jeep and started it up. “Do you want to chat with me on speaker while I drive?”
I knew he was busy. There was never a time Garrett wasn’t working on one case or a dozen, but he still chatted with me on the line for over twenty minutes while I nosed the vehicle north on I-5 toward the area that used to be home but now was just throbbing pain.
/> He told me the officer was at the house and would check the premises and take the bottle.
“I want you coming here afterward,” he told me. “You can go pack a bag, get Wookie and then come and stay with me until all this mess is sorted. You’re not safe there. Not with someone having your house keys. Not with cameras and an alarm. Not without me.”
I promised I’d talk to him about that later, and ended the call.
I had butterflies in my stomach at the prospect of seeing Denny. Things had ended poorly between us when my life became a vortex of doom and he’d stood on the edge of that spiral and, instead of standing by me, had chosen to cheat. I played an audible book through the speakers and comforted myself in my deep breathing and mindfulness exercises.
Big Al’s was an all-American family restaurant that hugged the Canadian border. It had old-fashioned décor and you could choose to sit at one of the vinyl booths or perch on a stool at the counter. Home cooking and friendly service with a smile. Unless you were the talk of the town for the past fifteen months. Now, instead of service with a smile, the entire restaurant of locals fell silent when I walked in, and those smiles faltered and jaws dropped as I crossed the room and slipped into a corner booth.
The restaurant recovered and slowly the low-level chatter returned and the sidelong glances stopped. A waitress I didn’t recognize asked me if I wanted coffee.
“Yes, and water. Please.”
While she ran off to get that, I hid behind the menu as if I was going to get anything besides the grilled ham and cheese sandwich I always got at Big Al’s. But maybe I should try something new. After all, I wasn’t the same person as I was back when I used to frequent this place.
Denny was late but I expected nothing less. I’d ordered my grilled ham and cheese and nibbled the corners by the time he arrived. I knew without looking up from my phone the moment he walked in since the restaurant grew quiet again.
He slid into the booth across from me, tucked his thick black hair behind one ear and smiled.
“Look at you,” he said with an easy smile and a tone nearing approval.
I smiled back and it was easier than I ever thought it would be. Even from across the booth I could smell the scent of the cigarillos he liked and it smelled like humbler times that gave me an unexpected ache.
“You’re too skinny.” He picked up half my sandwich, which was now cold, and took a large bite.
“And you’re too judgey,” I replied stuffing a french fry in my mouth.
“You still with that old guy?”
“He’s not old.”
I wanted to get the upper hand here. I didn’t want this to slip into a comfortable reunion even if part of me did yearn for life before chaos. For a time when I lived in my small trailer with Wookie and worked at the gas station in town.
“Saw on your Facebook business page you’re doing all that voodoo shit for a living now.”
Just like that the warm fuzzy notion of coming home evaporated and I felt like he should be able to see it lift off me in a steamy vapor. Denny hadn’t been there for me when things went to hell, and he didn’t deserve my time of day then or now. I pushed my plate toward him so he could eat my leftovers.
“Tell me about Ebba Johansson.”
His eyebrows lifted and he gave me curious look at my businesslike tone but accepted it as he chomped down on my food.
“She put herself through massage school, whatever that is, and pulled a good-sized chunk of cash out of running a bunch of those places in casinos around these parts. She has lots but I don’t know how many girls rubbing people down at casinos and she gets a cut. Heard she even has people giving massages to dogs.” He shook his head and laughed. “People will pay for anything these days.”
“So she’s just a hardworking single mom then?”
“Sure.” He shrugged. “She hasn’t been in the casino much these days though. Last time I saw her she just looked done. She’s trying to sell the business. Guess Ava dying was too much.”
“Did you know Ava?”
“Might say that.” He signaled the waitress for coffee. “I did her a time or two way back when.”
I straightened and could tell Denny was enjoying my startled look.
“You guys went out?”
“I wouldn’t say we went out. More like we stayed in.” He gave me a sly wink.
“When was this?”
He picked up a french fry and waved it in my face. “You’re jealous.”
“I am so not jealous. At all.”
“Too bad.” He thanked the waitress for his coffee and then took a sip.
“So when did you and Ava stay in exactly?”
“Last year sometime. I’d see her around. She’d come around the casino. She was supposed to work but most days she’d just screw the pooch, yanno. Show up late or not at all, or just show up to party, and a couple times she was there at the end of my shift so...” He lifted his mug of coffee to his lips for another drink and suddenly lowered it. “Don’t be telling the cops about that. I don’t need them coming around and asking me questions about Ava.” His voice was low and heated.
If it was nothing but a couple rolls in the sheets I wondered why Denny was resisting telling the cops. He certainly had no problem bragging to me about sleeping with her and I bet others knew too but I didn’t want to get into that with him.
“What did Ebba think of you messing around with her daughter?”
“I’m sure she didn’t know about me and Ava. Not like we were a thing or anything. That girl was far too much a headache for me. High maintenance. Got on my nerves. Ebba’s too, and she was pulling her hair out about her daughter most days. She shoulda just cut those apron strings and let her fly on her own but, nope, she kept trying to get her in the biz, and every time Ava showed up with her hand open, Ebba would scrape together something to give her.”
I waited when the waitress came by to refill my cup.
“Guess she was trying to make a responsible young woman out of her daughter and get her to work,” I said. “Seems to me if business was going well then she had more than enough to spread around to her daughter.”
“She put herself on the hamster wheel, yanno?”
I didn’t have a clue what he meant so I waited for him to explain after he filled his coffee with cream and sugar. “Just one of those people who work all the time and wanted Ava to be the same. I think she thought Ava was just going through a rebellious phase.”
“What do you think?”
“I think Ava was never going to come and work in the family biz. She just wanted to do her own thing, and her thing involved partying hard and hardly working.”
“Anything else you can tell me that other people don’t know about Ebba or Ava?”
He gave that some honest thought as he sipped from his mug. “Not really. Ebba told me she really wants to retire now. She always used to talk about living by a lake without another soul around for miles once Ava took over the company.”
“Lots of people have that dream.”
“The only time I ever saw her and Ava getting along is when they were sitting in one of the coffee shops having lunch and they were chatting about some cottage on a lake and living without a care in the world. They talked like it was right around the corner.”
“Now that Ava’s gone, it probably makes sense she doesn’t want to keep working so hard.”
“Who knows what’s going on inside her head except she really wanted the news people to focus on you helping out with finding Ava. She was excited about that. Put some color back in her cheeks when she was beginning to look tired from all the grief, yanno?” He drummed his fingers a little on the table. “Guess she feels like if you find Ava she can bury her and it’ll help her to move on.”
“What do you think?”
“I think she’s going to carry that ang
er and sadness with her forever until it drags her down into a plot next to her daughter and she’ll never enjoy any cottage near a lake.”
I nodded.
“Yeah, she was busy out looking for Ava with all the search parties day in and day out.”
“Guess most family members do that.”
“Yeah and once she heard from the coroner that all the blood found in the woods meant Ava was dead, she took a couple weeks off. I figured she’d up and walk away from everything but she randomly came back. Guess it finally hit her that Ava’s not coming back but now all that money she took out of the business for the ransom is gone too. She told me she just needed to bury her daughter for closure.” He nodded his chin at me. “That’s when I mentioned you. Figured if you helped her find the body, maybe she’d get some peace.”
I wanted to point out all the times he’d told me he didn’t believe in my ability to find people. I wanted to say how he’d compared my dowsing rods to using a Ouija board and called me crazy. All the words I wanted to say stayed strangled in the back of my throat.
The waitress dropped off the bill. He didn’t even make an attempt to reach for it.
“You ever meet Ronald Low? Ava’s boyfriend who supposedly killed her?”
“I knew him enough to look at him but we never hung out or nothing. I did see him come around the casino with Ava a time or two. Saw Ava, Ron and Ebba all chummy a couple times too. Guess things changed.”
“Guess they did.” I was about to get up and then another thought occurred to me. “You ever know a guy named Wes who grew up around this area?”
“Black dude? Crooked teeth?”
I nodded.
“Sure, I knew Wes. He moved outta this area maybe three years ago now. I heard he’s got a landscaping business or something. He’s a few years younger than me. Was about your grade in high school or maybe a year younger.”
“Really?” I thought hard and shook my head. “I don’t remember him from high school at all.”
“Back then nobody called him Wes. Everyone called him Wheezy on account of his asthma.”
“Oh my God! Wheezy.” I rubbed the back of my neck as a strong memory jumped to the front of my mind. I’d asked Wheezy if he was okay when I heard him gasping for breath a few feet away from me. In return, he slammed me into a school locker so hard I saw stars. “He was such a dick.”
A Grave Search Page 17
