A Grave Calling

by Wendy Roberts

  “For the record I don’t,” he said.

  “Don’t what?” I looked at him.

  “I don’t have a lot of friends. Not real ones anyway. I... I mean we had friends together, my wife and me, but...” He shrugged. “They were other couples and afterward...that all drifted away. For the best, I’m sure. Who wants to be the fifth wheel, right?”

  “What about Jill? She’s certainly friendly toward you.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him to lighten the mood.

  “Oh you caught that, huh? Yeah, she’s not very subtle.” He looked over at me, completely bewildered. “For some reason, women find widows attractive. I swear I could have a horn growing out of the middle of my forehead and warts all over but the minute I announce that my wife died, they’re on me like white on rice.”

  He looked comically dumbfounded.

  “Maybe you should stop wearing that cologne,” I joked. “I smelled it when I was cleaning your bathroom and it almost made me swoon. My knees may even have buckled a little.”

  He snorted good-naturedly as he steered the car to the curb in front of another pile of bouquets and teddy bears.

  “Iris Bell,” I said on a sympathetic sigh.

  “Yes, we didn’t have any cameras to let us know this was the spot but she walked partway home from work with a friend and they parted company right there.” He pointed to a street up ahead. “She lives just a block behind us.”

  The street was quiet and tree lined but vacant of any buildings or houses.

  “Was it late when he got her?”

  “Evening. Just like the others.” He looked up something on his phone. “There are two casinos almost equal distance from here. I’d like to take a drive to both from this location.”

  He headed north to the first one about thirty minutes away and then returned to the abduction site and went south to the other. There was no more music on the radio and he seemed intent on something that he wasn’t about to share with me.

  By the time we’d traveled to Alger and Burlington to see the sites where Kari Burke and Sue Torres were taken it was getting late. Pierce insisted on traveling from each site where the girls went missing to the closest casino. He asked me to let him know if I noticed anything unusual or if anything struck me as odd. I wanted to help the case but all streets and routes began to look alike. Many of the roads I’d traveled my entire life and nothing seemed strange or different about the drive. Finally, he reluctantly announced it was time to call it a day. The sun had gone down and there was no use driving around in the dark. A cloud of bleak abjection filled the car. Obviously, Pierce had higher hopes for the outing than I ever did. Right from the start I figured chances were low we’d find any clues just wandering somewhat aimlessly.

  We got burgers at a drive-thru on our way back to his place. Although I enjoyed not being imprisoned in the apartment during the day, I was relieved when he finally pulled into the parking garage. My ass was half-asleep after so long in the car and it felt great to finally get out.

  “I bet you’re thinking that being an FBI agent is not nearly the exciting thing you thought it was,” he said as we got off the elevator and walked down the hall.

  It was boring as hell except for running into Jonas at the gas station but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

  He opened the door and I stepped inside.

  “I sure as hell hope you get reimbursed for the gasoline if this is your normal day.” I kicked off my shoes.

  “Wow,” he said stopping short in the entrance.

  “What?” I asked.

  “It smells so fresh in here. I just noticed how much you must’ve cleaned this morning. I almost feel like I should mess the place up a bit.”

  “Don’t you dare!” I said in mock horror.

  He grabbed a couple glasses of water and brought them to the couch. I’d been ready to just head to my room but I guess he wanted company so I joined him on the sofa.

  “Most of my job is like today,” he admitted. “Boring paperwork, lots of legwork that leads nowhere. Chasing nothing leads and guessing about what to do next.”

  “You don’t know it goes nowhere, though, right? That’s why you do all this stuff because all you can do is try and find a link.”

  He leaned forward and sifted through the paper pile on the end of the coffee table and took out the eight-by-ten pictures of the missing girls. He fanned them out on the table and just stared at them.

  “I’m missing something. I wish you could just wave a magic wand or hit me over the head with one of your rods and make me figure out what I can’t see, because there’s something big that I’m just overlooking. I can feel it.”

  He gathered up the pictures and put them back facedown on the other paperwork. Then he leaned back and put his feet on the coffee table and closed his eyes. I sipped my water for a minute and when he didn’t open his eyes I got to my feet.

  “Good night then,” I said, walking away.

  “Oh just a second.”

  He got up and headed off to his bedroom and returned with a stack of books that he put down on the coffee table.

  “Ta-da. My self-help books. I thought you’d get a real kick out of these. Feel free to choose one if you want some light reading.” He snagged one from the top. “Here’s a good one, Moving On: How to Heal Your Heart.” He tossed it aside. “It was a gift from someone or other but never mind that one because it put me to sleep in Chapter one. How about this one?” He picked up a thick hardcover. “Mindfulness Exercises for Grieving.” He laughed. “I actually thought it was some kind of physical exercise regime.”

  I laughed and picked up the next one in the stack.

  “Exit Laughing: How Humor Takes the Sting Out of Death,” I read out loud and then looked at him with mock seriousness. “Well, did it? Did laughing take the sting out of death?” I put the book down and covered my mouth with my hand because I realized that was completely inappropriate but still let a giggle out. I started laughing so hard and I couldn’t stop. I loudly snorted, then covered my face in mortification and bit the inside of my cheek to try and gain some control. It didn’t work at all. Now I was snorting and giggling behind my hands as tears of laughter filled in my eyes.

  “You find that funny, do you?” He took a step toward me and waved a finger in my face. “I’ll have you know that it was actually a very good book. I quite enjoyed it.”

  “I-I’m so sorry.” I cleared my throat.

  “No, you’re not.” He reached over and poked me in the ribs. “You’re not sorry at all, are you?”

  “No, I’m really not.”

  I squealed as he came closer and poked me in my ribs again, causing me to guffaw-giggle-snort in a really unladylike way. Suddenly he had both hands on my waist and we grew very quiet.

  “You have a beautiful laugh.”

  The entire world seemed to cry hush.

  I became very still as I looked up at his face. Licking my lips, I took a half step forward until we were only a breath apart.

  “I’d like to kiss you,” he said, his voice touchingly earnest. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for a very long time.”

  “Agent Pierce, I don’t think Jill would like that very much,” I breathed.

  One of his fingertips traced up my arm to my shoulder.

  “Then I should definitely do it,” he murmured. “Please don’t call me Agent Pierce.”

  “Garrett,” I said, the name feeling strange on my lips.

  He leaned forward, then added haltingly, “Are you okay with it, Julie?” He froze then and retracted. “I’m crossing the line here. I’m very sorry. Of course you’re not okay with it. I don’t know what came over me.”

  He went to turn away but I reached up and circled my arms around his neck, stood on tiptoe and drew him close to brush my lips against his. Hesitantly he ret
urned the kiss and soon there was a fever of desire as he wrapped his arms around me and molded my body to his. His embrace was gentle, as if he was afraid I’d shatter into a million pieces if he squeezed too tight. I had zero interest in being treated like a delicate flower or an inexperienced virgin. My mouth opened and explored his. He was still hesitant until I took his hand and guided it under my T-shirt to my breast.

  “Are you sure?” his lips murmured against mine on a low moan.

  I reached for his zipper in answer and seconds later we were in his bed. There was no time to overthink the situation. All I wanted was to feel and concentrate on so many sensations happening at once. He slowly stripped away my clothes and then kissed my throat, breasts, stomach and lower. Before he entered me I was already panting, moaning and begging for him. I met his need with a ferocious urgency of my own. Afterward, when he collapsed on top of me, I clutched him tightly and placed soft kisses on his chest before he rolled off.

  It was inevitable, this frantic explosion between us, I told myself as I lay there trying to catch my breath. We worked closely together day after day and we both needed to obliterate the horrors of what we’d seen. I rolled onto my side and soon I heard his breath grow slow and even, so I opened the blanket to crawl out of his bed. I was sitting on the edge of the bed with my back to him when I heard the rustle of the blankets behind me.

  “Stay,” he said. “Please, stay.”

  He placed his hand at the center of my shoulder blades and his fingers traced and caressed my back from the top all the way down to the small indent at the base of my spine. I tensed as he haltingly touched the gruesome raised and knotted scar tissue. Then deliberately he put his lips to all of those old wounds, tracing the hideous keloid scars with his mouth and stripping away the ugliness. We made love again and it was as close to healing as I’d ever experienced.

  Chapter Eight

  I slept hard and long. The next morning I woke to voices. My hand went to Garrett but the sheets on his side were cool. I sat up and looked around for my clothes strewn haphazardly around the room and slowly began to dress. The woman’s voice was louder, sharp. It was Jill. I zipped my jeans and just sat on the edge of the bed. I couldn’t go out there and see her after breaking yet another one of her rules.

  A biggie, I thought and smiled.

  She left with the slam of a door and he walked into the bedroom. Things had changed. Immediately I could see that by the cut of his chin, the regret in his eyes and the way he hesitated to come closer. I got to my feet, smoothed my hair and went to leave.

  “I guess I’ll hit the shower,” I said casually.

  “We’ve got to talk.”

  Oh, brother. Cliché much? Get ready for it. He’ll say it’s not me it’s him and last night was a mistake and blah, blah, blah.

  He took me by the hand and brought me to the sofa. I sat, trying not to show fear and sadness in my eyes while he perched on the coffee table across from me, our knees touching. I steeled my heart and head from the hurt and then decided to go on the offensive.

  “I know, I know.” I put my hands up palms out. “You don’t have to say anything. It was a mistake. It’s bad for the case because it could taint the evidence and—”

  “Another girl is missing,” he said.

  I just blinked in surprise and wrapped my thoughts around the horror of that but also hid the glimmer of hope in my chest that he didn’t regret the night before. Immediately I cringed with guilt because what does one night of lovemaking mean against the life of a young girl. I wanted to bitch slap myself.

  Garrett leaned forward and placed his hands on my knees.

  “It’s Katie.”

  “What do you mean?” I tilted my head in confusion.

  “It’s Katie. Your friend,” he repeated. “We don’t know exactly when she was taken because nobody reported her missing.”

  “No.” I got to my feet. “That’s ridiculous. Katie goes missing all the time. She is notorious for her disappearing act.” I paced the room. “In eleventh grade her mom had every cop in the neighborhood convinced she’d been taken and then she showed up after three days wearing the same slutty dress she’d been clubbing in days before.”

  “We know it’s the same guy.”

  “How do you know?” I demanded.

  “Her car was found in the casino parking lot.” He got up as he spoke and put his hands on my shoulder. “There was blood inside and a white ribbon.”

  “No.”

  I shook my head and continued to murmur “no” even as he put his arms around me and held me tight.

  “Maybe it’s not the same guy because he didn’t leave ribbons on the abduction scenes, right? Could be just a prank. A copycat or it could even be that she set it up herself for attention, because that would be one hundred percent Katie,” I said against his shoulder.

  He let me ramble until I’d finally stopped and then he kissed the top of my head.

  “They’re bringing in someone to be interviewed so I have to go.” He turned away. “I might be gone a while but, I’m sorry, you’re going to have to sit tight here.”

  “A suspect?” I followed him to the door. “That’s good, right? They caught the guy. We should celebrate.”

  “It’s just a guy being brought in for questioning. It doesn’t mean anything. We’ve interviewed a lot of guys over the last couple months.”

  “Okay.” I nodded. He didn’t want me to get my hopes up. I got that. “But it’s better than nothing.”

  “Shit, you’re probably going to hear it on the news anyway...” He shoved his feet in his shoes and reached for his keys off the counter. “It’s Denny.”

  My mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

  He lifted my chin with the tip of his finger.

  “It doesn’t mean he did it but he was the last one seen with her so we’ve got to follow through, okay?”

  He went to kiss the top of my head but I lifted my face to receive his lips on mine, and I kissed him long and hard, feeling overwhelmed and emotional. I wanted desperately to obliterate his words and simultaneously wanted Garrett to carry my imprint with him. He answered my need and for a flash of time I thought we’d be back in bed forgetting about anything as silly as Katie going missing and Denny being a murderer. Then he broke away and left in a whirl of apologies.

  The minute he was gone I flipped on the television and watched the news. Replay after replay of Katie’s nineteen-seventy-two blue Mustang surrounded by crime scene tape, and then a shot of Denny being brought out to a waiting undercover car. A hoodie covered his head and we only saw him from the back. The journalists only said it was an unknown person of interest but I knew from the stride, the set of his shoulders and a tangle of dark hair from the edge of the hoodie that it was Denny.

  My head throbbed as I picked up my phone and called Gramps.

  “I heard the news,” he said when he answered the phone. “It’s a mistake, of course. As big a numbskull as Denny is, I don’t see him as a mastermind or criminal. Certainly doesn’t have enough brains in his stupid head to be abducting and killing multiple girls.”

  “I know, it’s crazy, right?” I rubbed the back of my neck. “But what about Katie? What do you think happened to her?” I swallowed nervously. “Do you think it was the same guy who took the others?”

  “I don’t know, hon, but you just calm down and don’t worry about it. I’m sure Katie will come out right as rain. She always does.”

  “You’re right. Katie’s Teflon.” I blew out a shallow breath. “I know I was pissed at her and Denny but that doesn’t mean I wish them bad.”

  “Of course you don’t. You’ve got a gold heart and you never wish anyone bad.”

  That wasn’t true. I’d spent a lot of time growing up wishing I’d wake up and find Grandma dead on the kitchen floor o
f a sudden heart attack. At the end of the day, though, it had been her icy front steps that caused her to fall, crack her head open and die instantly. When I’d been at home it had been my job to chop away at the ice on the steps and then salt them. I shuddered when I remembered the glimmer of joy I’d felt when Gramps called me with the news of her death. I should’ve felt guilty but I didn’t. All I felt then—and, to be honest, feel now—is unadulterated relief that the woman was now dancing with Satan and no longer on the planet.

  I realized Gramps was going on about Wookie and so I gave my head a shake and tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

  “You see, there’s no truth to that saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This old dog learned how to bake dog treats from a recipe and Wookie learned to beg for the entire pan.”

  I closed my eyes and smiled at the thought of Gramps baking for my dog.

  “I’ve never seen you cook or bake. Obviously I should’ve left you to your own devices long ago.”

  “Well, I’ve burned a few things already,” he admitted. “Found out the batteries in the smoke detector work but that dumb mutt doesn’t care.”

  Wookie was barking in the background as if in agreement.

  “Gotta go take him for his walk. We have rabbits to chase. Big rabbits,” Gramps said. “Don’t be wasting your head space worrying about Denny and Katie. What will be, will be.”

  That wasn’t good enough for me. I didn’t want to just wait for the fates to bring Katie home.

  We disconnected and I watched the television news again and again. Garrett had so many channels I could watch the same video clips on a half dozen different channels with varying opinions. In the end, though, they all said the same thing, which was nothing at all. There was a whole lot of guessing about this serial killer and Katie’s abduction. There was no mention at all made about blood in the car or the white ribbon. The law enforcement agencies were playing their cards close to their chests. It made me wonder what else they didn’t reveal to the public. Or me. I was guessing that Garrett had a ton of information he wasn’t about to reveal to some dowsing girl he happened to screw in a moment of weakness.