Behind Her Eyes

by Robin Mahle

  “Unless one of them gets sick, we should be good to go. You want to join us? Marjorie’s going make dinner so Mom can relax. She’s been working double shifts at the restaurant.”

  “I’d like that. But if this thing blows up…”

  “Right. I gotta go, Riley. I’ll call you later, when I know something.” He turned toward the school grounds and walked away.

  Upon returning to her patrol car, she stepped inside and keyed the ignition. She stared at the school for a moment, wondering if Chloe Dawson was a student or had been one. But the answer to that question would have to wait. In the meantime, Riley wanted to make a quick stop before heading back to the station. She wanted to see the only person who could help scratch that itch when it came.

  The inside of the assisted living facility reminded Riley of an old hotel, a grand one with sparkling chandeliers and marble floors. Except this place had a much smaller light fixture without all the grandiosity. And the marble floors were in need of buffing. Too many scratches left by walkers, wheelchairs and canes. But none of that mattered because she was only here to see one person, the one man who’d made nothing short of a colossal impact on her life.

  “Well, hello, Riley. I’m surprised to see you here, and in uniform. To what do we owe the pleasure?” The kind middle-aged woman who worked behind the reception desk smiled widely at their most frequent visitor.

  “I was wondering if Carl was available? I know I’m a day early, but I had a few spare minutes and I wanted to see his smiling face.”

  “Carl? Smile?” She pursed her lips. “Now really, I don’t think that man’s smiled since 1975.”

  Riley laughed. “You might be right, but I’d like to see him in any case.”

  “To each his own. He’s in his room, though he’s just had lunch, so he might be napping. I’ll ring him and let him know you’re here. You can go on up.”

  “Thank you.” Riley walked toward the elevators and stepped inside, pressing the second-floor button. Her weekly visit was early, but all she wanted was to see him and she hoped he was in a good mood. That depended on how the Hoosiers were doing—and it was still a little too early in the season to tell.

  Riley knocked on his door. “Carl, it’s me, Riley.”

  “Come in. It’s open.”

  She stepped inside the small apartment. Just a bedroom, bathroom, and living room with a small kitchenette. No cooking appliances, though. All the residents ate downstairs in the dining hall.

  “You’re early. What’s wrong?” Carl sat in his recliner and peered over at her.

  His hair was much greyer and thinner than when Riley met this man fifteen years ago. He’d also grown even more cantankerous, if that was possible. But she loved him with all her heart. And he felt the same.

  “Nothing. I just wanted to stop in and say hello,” she replied.

  “You’re in uniform. You don’t usually come by in uniform. Means you’re working.”

  “I am. I was actually doing some running around for the captain and thought I’d stop by on my way back.”

  “Uh-huh. Well, it’s good to see you anyway, Riley. Sit down. If you want something to drink, you’ll have go back downstairs. I just ran out of pop and those damn nurses haven’t brought me any more.”

  “I’m okay, Carl, thanks. How are you doing?”

  “Watching these damn pansies play basketball like a bunch of girls.” He stopped short and turned to her. “No offense.”

  “None taken.”

  “So, what’d you see? I figure you’re here because you saw something that isn’t sitting right with you.”

  He always could tell when she was going through a difficult time.

  “It’s just this case. We found some poor girl in the old plant—murdered.”

  Carl’s eyes widened. “The plant? You said they was turning it into something else. Or something.”

  “They are. A dog food manufacturing facility.”

  “And you found a girl?”

  “A dead girl. Young. Don’t know who she is yet.”

  “I see. And you can’t see inside her, is that right?” Carl took a deep breath but coughed up the air quickly.

  “She’s been gone too long. I got nothing. Not one damn thing.” Riley slumped into the chair.

  “And that’s what’s bothering you?”

  “I guess. Maybe something else too.”

  “I figured as much. Come on, spill it. What’s really going on?” Carl raised a brow.

  “I’m getting this weird feeling. I saw a strange car outside my house last night and I don’t know. Just gave me the willies, I guess.”

  “You guess, huh? Well, I’ve known you long enough to know that those feelings of yours usually amount to something. Maybe you’d better keep an eye out. See if you see that car again. Do your research.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “Okay then. Go on now. I need to get back to the game. Go on back to work. That’s where they need you most. You don’t need to keep looking after me. I got plenty of nurses here to do that.”

  Riley stood. “Okay, Carl. I’ll leave you be. Oh, Dillon says hi. I saw him earlier.”

  “He’s a good kid. Turned out be to a good man too.”

  “You had a lot to do with that. Listen, I’ll check up on you again soon.” She kissed his cheek. “See you later.”

  3

  Intuition was a powerful thing, but for Riley Thompson, it had been known to save her life a time or two. While her current unease didn’t feel life-threatening, it was disturbing nonetheless. And it was more than the death of that young woman. Putting her finger on it remained elusive.

  She returned to the station house knowing Ward would want answers from Dillon, but what she didn’t know was that an old friend and lover would be waiting for her.

  “Riley.” Jacob Biggs stood inside as she entered the station, a tender smile playing on his lips.

  Her jaw fell to the floor. “Jacob. What are you doing here?”

  Ethan was at his desk and witnessed the exchange with suspicion.

  Everyone knew Jacob. And the relationship he had with Riley back in high school was the stuff of legend. But he broke her heart, as some boys do. And it was particularly difficult for Riley when this was the same boy she’d fallen in love with when they were only ten years old. Of course, it had been several years later before they would date, but they had been close friends until that time. Almost as close as Riley had been with Kaitlyn Ross, her best friend since birth. However, Kaitlyn left Owensville too, just like Jacob had. She hadn’t blamed either of them. In those days, jobs were still scarce and they decided college was a better path for them.

  Riley’s path diverged. She knew her skills would be put to better use helping to keep the community safe from harm. Putting others ahead of herself was something she’d done for as long as she could remember. And squandering the gift she received from God and her grandfather was something she wouldn’t dare consider. It was her purpose on this planet.

  “I stopped by your house—your mom’s house. She said you worked for the department now. Guess I should’ve figured that. It’s what you always wanted.”

  “Yeah.” She continued inside, stunned and unsure of herself for the first time in years. It was Jacob’s parting gift—creating uncertainty.

  “Do you think we could maybe talk? Outside?” He placed his hands in his pockets, looking as though he was seeking forgiveness for something.

  Riley looked at Ethan. “Captain here?”

  “In his office.” Ethan kept a keen eye on Jacob. “He’s been waiting on your return.”

  “Right. Um, okay.” She walked past Jacob. “Just give me a minute, please. I need to check in with Captain Ward.”

  “Sure. Of course.” The boy with dark, floppy hair and a gangly stance had grown into a man with a sultry gaze and a frame that had filled out nicely.

  Riley walked into the captain’s office. “I’m back. Dillon said he’d look into
Chloe Dawson, but that he didn’t recognize the name right off the bat.”

  “Did he say when he’d get back to you?”

  “He has to find a work-around. Getting into student files isn’t something he’s permitted to do. He asked me to give him till the end of the day.”

  “Good. Good work.”

  She dropped her tone to just above a whisper. “How long has Jacob been here?”

  “Not long. Any idea why he’s here?”

  “Not a clue. He wants to talk. So I guess I’ll talk to him.”

  Ward studied her. “And you’re okay with that?”

  “Yes, I’ll be fine.” Riley began to leave.

  “Hey, remember, he’s the one who left. Not you,” Ward was quick to remind her.

  She closed the captain’s door and returned to the bullpen, where Jacob still waited. “If you don’t mind the chill in the air, we can talk outside.” Riley continued out, but not before a final glance to Ethan, who was less than pleased by Jacob’s arrival.

  “Sorry for the unexpected visit.” Jacob pulled his coat around him and joined her outside. “How’ve you been? You look good.”

  “Thanks. Keeping busy.” She peered into the distance, avoiding him as best she could.

  “You like it here? Working for the police, I mean.”

  “Of course I do. It’s what I was meant for, just like you said.” He’d caught her off guard and she didn’t like the feeling. In fact, she wondered if it had been his car that passed by her house last night. “When did you get into town?”

  “A couple days ago, actually. Took a while for me to muster up the courage to come see you.”

  “And you say you stopped by my mom’s house?” She’d begun to sound as though she was interrogating him.

  “Um, yeah. Yesterday. She said you’d just stopped by earlier in the day or something. And that if I’d been there a little sooner, I would’ve caught you. Anyway, she said you worked here.”

  “Did she tell you where I live now?” Riley pressed on.

  “Well, yeah, she did. But I didn’t want to just show up at your house.”

  “Right.” At least she knew who the car belonged to now. That put her mind at ease. “What brings you back home?”

  “I sort of broke up with my girlfriend, and I got laid off a few weeks ago. I didn’t really know what was going to be next for me. So, I figured, maybe I’d take some time to sort things out.”

  “Your folks are living in Terra Haute now, right? You stop by there first to see them?”

  “No, I came straight back here. I’ll make it out to see them, though, once I figure out some stuff. They’ll just grill me on what my plans are, and honestly,” he peered at Riley. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

  He captured her gaze and held it. She felt queasy. His head was jumbled, his thoughts incomplete. And it all hurled toward her like the debris on the night of the tornado. She finally closed her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, I forgot.” Jacob broke away.

  “You didn’t forget. And you never were very good at keeping your feelings from me.”

  “How could I be when you recognized them before I did?” He took in a breath of the fresh cool air. “Look, I know you need to get back to work. Do you think we could meet later? For dinner, maybe, and catch up?”

  “I don’t know, Jacob. We’ve got this big case going right now. I need to see how the rest of my day pans out.”

  “Sure, I understand.” He retrieved his keys from his coat pocket. “Just, maybe give me a call when you can. Maybe we can set something up. I’ll be in town for a while.” He stepped off the curb and into the parking lot.

  “Where are you staying?” she asked.

  “With my cousin.”

  “Right. I forgot he’s still here.”

  “Yeah. Most everyone left,” Jacob said.

  “Except me.”

  “Except you.” He stepped into his car and pulled away.

  Late afternoon brought in the winds from the north as the fall weather grew cooler. It also brought in the other officers who worked the nightshift. Lowell Abrams and Chris Decker had been partners for a number of years, long before Riley joined the force. And they preferred working nights because that was usually when things happened. It was also better pay.

  Riley considered working nights when she was hired on, but she knew what went on in this town at night, after football games, on weekends, and she really didn’t want any part in that. She preferred the days, not because they were easy, but because she didn’t have to deal with teenagers. They were the ones who couldn’t control their emotions. And Riley felt every last one of them. It would’ve been too much. Of course, she’d learned much since those early days of the gift. The voices eventually quieted. The images became fewer and she learned what to listen to and what to ignore. But teen angst, teen drama, and worst of all, seeing how so many of them despised their parents made it difficult. Most of those kids didn’t know how lucky they were.

  “Evening, folks.” Lowell Abrams, a moderately handsome but too thin man, was pushing thirty and was still single.

  Riley had no interest in him. He was brash and oozed machismo to the point that it could be misconstrued as sexist to anyone else. It was like he grew up watching a bunch of cop shows and figured that was how the cool ones behaved.

  Chris Decker was almost the polar opposite. In fact, it seemed implausible the two could remain partners. He was cool, calm, and collected. Average looks. Nothing special. But he had a big heart and that went farther, in Riley’s eyes, than looks did any day of the week.

  “How’s the homicide investigation going?” Abrams sat down across from Riley and stretched his legs out. “Can’t believe you were lucky enough to get in on that one. It ain’t like we get a lot of murders in Owensville.”

  “I wouldn’t say I was lucky that a girl is dead, Lowell,” Riley replied.

  “Ah, you’re right. I didn’t mean it that way.”

  “And no, nothing new yet. But it’d be helpful if you two kept an eye out for anyone coming or going from the direction of the plant. No one but the company and the contractors should be in that area.”

  “Ten-four. We’ll keep our eyes peeled,” Abrams replied.

  “I heard Jacob Biggs rolled into town,” Decker began. “Didn’t you two have a thing going on back in the day?”

  Riley wanted to roll her eyes because he knew they’d dated. Everyone knew. Even though he was three years her senior, he’d been around town. He also remembered the tornado.

  “Yeah. He stopped in here to see her a few hours ago, didn’t he, Riley?” Ethan looked at her with some irritation.

  “He did.”

  “Great. College boy decided he needed to come home, eh?” Abrams added sardonically.

  “He’s been out of college for a few years now, Lowell. He was working for an architecture firm in Indianapolis. There’s nothing wrong with that,” she replied.

  “I’m just pulling your chain, Riley. Geez. No need to get your panties in a bunch.”

  Captain Ward appeared from his office. “Hey. We don’t need talk like that around here, Lowell.”

  “Sorry, Cap.” He looked at Riley. “Sorry, Riley. No offense.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Lowell. You couldn’t cause my panties to bunch no matter how hard you tried.”

  Ethan and Chris Decker chuckled, though it seemed Ward didn’t find the humor in it.

  “You hear from your brother yet?” Ward asked.

  “No, sir. Not yet. I’d like to give him just a while longer, if that’s all right. He’s risking a lot by doing this.”

  “Sure, course he is. But we still got us a dead Jane Doe,” Ward replied.

  “I’ll call him if I don’t hear from him in the next hour,” Riley said.

  “I finished the BMV search,” Ethan added. “Nothing popped up on the girl’s name. So I figure she didn’t have a license. Maybe she’s not of age yet.”

  “We sti
ll need to track down any Dawsons we do find here and in the vicinity. If we can find the girl’s parents, that’ll go a long way to identifying the body,” Riley said.

  “Agreed.” Ward turned to the other officers. “In the interim, you boys have arrived just in time. I got off the horn with a lady who says she knows who robbed the IGA.”

  Riley and the other officers showed renewed interest. She was the first to speak. “Who was the lady? And how does she know?”

  “She’s the suspect’s mom apparently. Turned in her own son,” Ward said.

  “Frosty,” Abrams replied.

  “He broke the law. It’s what any good parent would do.” Riley pulled on her jacket and strapped her holster around her waist. “Are we going now to bring him in or did she convince him to come down to the station?”

  “Oh, we aren’t that lucky. She gave us an address and guaranteed he’d be there. I think we should all head out. We don’t know if he’s alone, but we do know he’s armed.”

  The apartment building was nothing more than a concrete tower with small square windows and black security bars. A fire escape snaked down the side of it. It was in a poorer area of town, which was saying something for Owensville, and had been built in the early 1980s. Its original intent was to become a dormitory for a satellite branch of the University of Indianapolis. But money ran dry when the Savings and Loan crisis hit because the lender was one of the institutions that closed. It was soon converted to apartments with small kitchenettes and was now Section 8 housing.

  “What’s the apartment number again?” Ethan asked Riley as they pulled into the parking lot.

  “218. Second floor on the west side.” Riley raised the captain on the radio. “Where are you, Cap?”

  “Pulling up behind you now.”

  “We’re outside the building,” Riley continued. “Abrams, Decker, you copy?”

  “Heading to the south end of the lot,” Decker replied on the radio.

  Ward called in. “Okay. I want Pruitt and Thompson to head in from the front, Abrams and Decker flank them on the right, and I’ll flank them on the left. It’s getting dark out there, so keep your eyes open.”