No big surprise there, not if she was honest with herself. Thea was gorgeous, she was talented, and she was single. Katie liked her, which made her want to help find her sister even more than she already did. She was intrigued from the moment she saw her, and that feeling had only deepened each day since.
Right now, she had nothing to offer Thea—no words of encouragement and no leads. In fact, other than talking to her brother, she’d failed to accomplish anything on the case, which left her feeling terrible. This wasn’t like her. She was a go-getter, a good investigator, and clearing cases quickly was what she did. Treading water wasn’t her style and wasn’t what she wanted Thea to see.
“How did it go in court today?”
Her head snapped up at the sound of Vince’s voice. “Ah, fine. Jury’s out, though it shouldn’t take long before they come back with a guilty verdict.”
“Pretty confident.”
“Pretty strong case by the state.”
He nodded. “Good, I hate riff-raff getting off, especially after we’ve done our work and then some stupid technicality lets them back on the street.”
“You left me a message earlier. Something you need from me?”
With his hand he waved her off. “No biggie. Dug up the answer to my question.”
She studied him. Now that she really looked he appeared a little stressed, not like his usual cocky self. This was a new one. “You all right, Vince?”
He seemed genuinely surprised by her question, but then again maybe he should be. She didn’t typically ask about his well-being. Oh hell, she never asked about his well-being because he was always so full of himself she just didn’t care. Today he was different, almost humble. He shrugged. “I’m fine, but thanks for asking. Makes me think you care.” He winked and the Vince she knew was back.
She was shaking her head as she said, “You’re a dog. You know that, right?”
He smiled, and the weariness of a moment before vanished. “I’m the best kind of dog.” He was laughing as he left.
Chapter Eleven
Thea didn’t speak as they drove toward home, the traffic on Highway 291 picking up as rush hour neared. Despite her vision in Alida’s studio, they hadn’t made any ground. She was depressed that they were stalled and heartsick about Alida’s pregnancy and miscarriage. It hurt that Alida hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her, and thinking of her enduring that painful experience by herself made Thea want to drop down to the floor and sob. It was all a crushing weight that threatened to flatten her.
But Lorna was trying her best to help, and Thea’s hurt feelings didn’t figure in at all. None of this was about her, so her bruised feelings and battered pride didn’t matter. Alida would have told her to put on her big girl panties and get over it.
She smiled. Though Thea wasn’t confrontational, Alida met everything head-on. How she loved that about Alida and often wished she were more like her.
But she wasn’t, and never would be, so she better put on those panties and try her best. That meant working with Lorna and Katie, the thought of which made her pause. Funny, how quickly she’d become attached to Katie. She missed her today and longed to hear the sound of her voice. The day seemed to have zipped by and they’d accomplished little. She prayed Katie had done better.
It was almost nine before she gave in and picked up the phone. Looking at the business card Katie put in her hand that first day, she punched in the number and then held her breath as the phone rang. This was probably a bad idea, inching toward a schoolgirl crush. She was just getting ready to end the call when Katie picked up. Too late.
“Carlisle.”
“Katie? It’s Thea.” Geez, was that her voice that sounded so squeaky?
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I, ah, just wanted to touch base since I hadn’t talked to you all day. Have you made any progress?” If she talked any faster, Katie would need a translator. At least the high, squeaky voice was gone.
“I’m sorry. It was a crazy day, topped off by having to spend all afternoon in court. I wanted to work more on Alida’s case but kept getting pulled away.”
“So, nothing.” Disappointment added to the weight on her shoulders.
“I’m sorry.”
She was too, although she felt better just hearing Katie’s voice. “Tomorrow then.”
“Yes, tomorrow, and Thea…”
“Yes?”
“I’m glad you called.”
*
“Damn it,” he muttered. She lay unmoving at his feet. He didn’t need to check to see if she was breathing. What would be the point?
Despite all his best intentions, he’d gone and done it again. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t go there again. The last one was the last one. It had been great too. For a little while anyway. Then something came over him. No, that wasn’t quite it. It was more like she came over him.
With the best of intentions he’d gone to that lounge after work. One drink, two tops to relax, and then he’d planned to buzz on home and get a few things done around the old place. It needed it. The whole mess pissed him off. In all those years, didn’t his old man do anything besides sit around drinking and bitching about his mother? From the looks of the place when he moved in, the answer was a resounding no. Just proved once more his opinion of him was spot on: pig.
He’d left the office with his plan set. A drink or two to mellow out after a long, stressful day at work, and then back to the old homestead for a little home improvement. That was all great until she walked in looking like…well, like they all looked: ready for him. The old man might not have been the best father around or very handy around the house, but he’d taught him some important things. Like how to shoot, how to lie, how to know when a woman is asking for him to take charge.
Each and every one gave him the signal. He looked them straight in the eye and there it was, the tell. It wasn’t like he needed to twist their arms either. Oh no, they came with him smiling the whole way. The men who couldn’t pick up women were complete losers. There was nothing to it.
The killing part, well, Pops didn’t teach him that exactly. Sort of implied it, and he was smart enough to carry through with the most critical part all by himself. That’s not to say Pops didn’t carry through too. Damn straight. He’d found that out the night he came out to the place to find Pops in his favorite chair with a scotch in one hand and his mother bleeding at his feet, her skull crushed.
He’d cleaned up the mess, in more ways than one. The nice thing about having older parents who were damn-near hermits, nobody much asks about them. As it turned out, it worked incredibly well for him. Once Pops joined Mom he was able to give up his house in town because their social-security checks were still coming in, providing him a bump in disposable income, and he was granted all the privacy a guy could ask for.
Now, however, he had a little mess of his own to clean up. Again. He sighed and headed out to his truck. His work was never done.
The toolbox unlocked, he reached in and pulled out one of the blue tarps he kept there. When he’d purchased the first tarp he’d had no idea it would prove to be so useful. Versatile too. They kept things clean, were easy to fold up and tuck away, and, most important, were just the right size to wrap around a body. He silently patted himself on the back for having such great insight. Things really did have a way of working out.
Once he had the tarp spread out, he rolled her onto it so he could wrap her up nice and tidy. The kill was clean—no muss, no fuss. Later he would dust and vacuum just to make sure there was no evidence of her presence in his house, but he wasn’t all that worried. Nobody would suspect him of anything, and the chances they’d come looking here were pretty much nil. Nobody ever came out here. His parents, who were old enough to be his grandparents at the time he was born, didn’t have friends. As it turned out, neither did he.
Still, he was a careful guy, and a careful guy didn’t gamble. On the outside
chance something very strange happened and someone made a surprise visit to his house, he planned to be ready. He would clean his house as soon as he returned from his garden of roses. That made him smile.
He hoisted her wrapped body onto one shoulder and carried her outside, where he loaded her into the bed of his truck, making sure to conceal the rolled tarp with a bag of potting soil and a couple of shovels. Anyone glancing in the back wouldn’t think a thing of the pile of stuff. Just the way he liked it.
Okay, so despite no plans for indulging himself again, especially so soon after the last one, the deed was done. Still, he admitted, he felt pretty fucking great. Like a king. It was like fate was smiling on him, and who was he to question fate? Sometimes a guy just rolled with it.
*
Lorna sat on the edge of the bed and debated whether to call Renee. She wanted to, in the worst way, because she felt empty and scared. Though she’d called Jeremy earlier, which helped, he wasn’t the one who held her when the night was dark and lonely or whispered just the right words in her ear to make her smile and believe in herself again.
Today reality hit her hard. Alida had disappeared without a trace or a clue, and the only psychic energy left behind was by someone powerful and evil. No wonder Thea had sounded so frantic and insistent Lorna come right away. With nothing else to grab onto, she chose to try a friend who perhaps might offer something no one else could. From the moment she realized what was happening to her was something along the psychic lines, she hated it. Solving the mystery of Catherine Swan’s disappearance was gratifying, but she still hated seeing things. She wanted to go back to being normal. Until now. For the first time since this crazy thing started she wanted the visions to come and to see as much as she could.
Inside her was a draw to the evil permeating the parking area at the transfer station and the disembodied voice in her vision, which scared the crap out of her yet oddly gave her hope they’d find Alida. She promised herself she’d track down this guy who was, she felt certain, the same person responsible for the bad vibes at the parking lot and Alida’s studio.
When an evil soul had tried to hijack Jeremy at the house, Renee was able to see the manifestation of that evil in Jeremy’s aura. Renee might not have an ability to see what was or what might be, but she certainly had something special. That gift might come in handy in this instance too. But she was over three hundred miles away physically and who knew how far away emotionally.
With the phone in her hand Lorna kept staring at it as if it was a dangerous weapon that would burn the flesh from her fingers if she dared to make the call. It was just shy of two in the morning, and way too late—or too early—to call anyone, let alone someone she professed to love. Her fingers itched to make the call against her better judgment. Something had been off between her and Renee before she left to come here. And it wasn’t Renee’s fault. The blame rested one hundred percent on her shoulders.
She was afraid. It was easy to blame it all on Anna, and that’s exactly what she’d done for months. After all, Anna had dumped her for another woman, and Lorna had run to the house on the coast Aunt Bea left her. At the time she was full of hate and fury because Anna’s betrayal destroyed her. But she was over Anna and had been for quite a while. The world of denial she’d brought with her after the breakup was way too comfortable to let go of it easily. It was easier to hold on tight to anger and hurt than to open herself up to the possibility of a new life.
Then Renee and her dog had walked in, and everything had changed. She fell hard and incredibly fast. Maybe that’s what made it so scary. The way she’d loved Anna didn’t even touch the way she felt about Renee. So, if she was that crushed when Anna left her, what the hell would she do if Renee left her too? Or rather, when Renee left her. Her track record for maintaining a long-term relationship pretty much sucked.
It was all quite confusing. Renee had made it very clear she loved Lorna, and she believed her. That wasn’t the problem. No, the real issue was geography: Renee lived in the city. She’d built an incredibly successful life there, and despite the fire that had wiped out her home and business, it’s where she belonged. Every time she talked about her shop and all the unique and interesting things she carried, she lit up. Her heart was with the shop and the Emerald City.
Seattle wasn’t for Lorna. It was a great place to visit, but she didn’t want to live there. When she moved from Spokane she left city life behind, and she wouldn’t trade the magnificent house on the shores of the Pacific Ocean to move into an even bigger city than the one she’d left. That house overlooking the ocean held her heart, especially after what had happened with Tiana McCafferty and Catherine Swan. She owed it to the two women who lost their lives on that property to give it life and love once again. No way in hell would she ever leave it behind.
Would Renee and Clancy even consider trading the life and culture of Seattle for the tranquility of the house on the ocean shore? No matter which direction she came at the question, she kept circling back around to the same answer: No. The thought of their departure tore her apart yet she was helpless to stop it.
She would have plenty of time to ponder that in the days to come, but not now. Worrying about things out of her control was a waste of time and energy better spent trying to help Alida.
The phone grew warm in her hand, and it occurred to her she should either use it or put it away and go to sleep. With a deep breath, she pressed the speed dial for Renee. Though it hurt to think about the future, it hurt more to not hear her beautiful voice. She just hoped Renee would forgive her for calling at this ungodly hour.
It rang only twice before Renee picked up. That was a good sign, right? “Hey, sexy, how’s it going?”
In the dim glow of the bedside lamp Lorna smiled, and the tension in her shoulders eased. “It’s going. Sorry to wake you up. You were probably sleeping.”
Renee laughed, a light and magical sound that went straight to her heart. “No worries. I have plenty of time to sleep. I’d rather talk to you any time of the day or night. I miss you.”
Those three simple words made her throat tighten. “I miss you too.”
“Good to know. Have you come up with anything helpful for your friend?”
She shook her head even though she sat alone in the room. “No, nothing that was clear enough to figure out where Alida might be. But I’m certain it was a man who abducted her, snatched her right from her work truck. She didn’t take off on her own, and it wasn’t another woman.”
“Oh, Lorna, that’s really messed up. Were you able to see a face or enough of his features to recognize him if you ran across him?”
“No, and it’s frustrating as hell. I need to see that fucker’s face. Sorry…” Renee rarely cussed, but Lorna sported a regular potty mouth. Since Renee had come to stay with her, she’d tried to be more respectful and keep it clean, but more often than not her sailor’s mouth just got away from her, and the obscenities rolled right off her tongue.
Renee’s laughter was hearty. “All things considered, beautiful, I’d be expecting something more along the lines of ‘motherfucker.’”
Hearing that kind of curse come out of Renee’s mouth made her laugh in spite of her dark mood. She would have loved to see Renee’s face as that word crossed her lips. “I might just corrupt you yet.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you have so corrupted me, and I love it. Come to think of it, you can corrupt me anytime the urge strikes you.”
Damn it, this pissed her off. She was falling hard for Renee. The tears that suddenly sprang into her eyes threatened to spill, and she blinked hard to keep them back. It was silly, considering she was sitting here all by herself. Still, she didn’t want to dissolve into a lovelorn woman whether or not there were witnesses. The one thing she could cling to was her strength, and she wasn’t about to abandon that now.
“Hey, did I tell you my place is looking pretty sweet? Another two weeks and it should be done. Fire inspector officially cleared me today too. It’s been a
n awesome day except that you’re clear across the state. I wish you could be here. We could celebrate my vindication with a bottle of wine.”
Both joy and sadness filled her as she listened to Renee’s bright voice. She missed her terribly, but the part about Renee’s building in Seattle left her chilled, despite Renee’s obvious joy when she answered the phone. In two weeks Renee would be gone, and Lorna would be alone again.
She forced cheerfulness into her voice and hoped it covered the chill in her heart. “That’s fantastic.” All things considered, she figured she’d pulled it off. Renee wouldn’t have any idea she was about five seconds away from dissolving into tears.
“It’s been such an ordeal. Fires suck, if I haven’t mentioned it before. Thank the good Lord for insurance and astute fire investigators. I’ve been cleared, as I knew I would be since I didn’t have anything to do with the fire, and my investment property is almost back to a hundred percent. From the ashes the Phoenix rises!”
“I’m glad for you, Renee.” This time she wasn’t so sure she pulled off the forced optimism.
“Lorna, are you okay? You sound down.”
Again, she worked hard at pushing away the sadness. Yes, they were lovers but they’d never made any promises, and she wasn’t about to push the issue. “Yeah, I’m good. It’s just been a night, and after trying so hard to find Alida and failing, I’m beat.”
“Look, sweetheart, get some rest and we can talk again in the morning. And Lorna…”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
This time the tears did course down her cheeks. Fuck promises. “I love you too.”
Chapter Twelve
The moon was round and bright, its light a golden glow that spread across the grass. Stretched out on his back, he stared into the night sky and breathed in fresh, clean air. The smell of damp grass with just a hint of manure wafting through the breeze from a nearby pasture was comforting in its normality. He was proud of himself for keeping everything tidy. Despite his little slip earlier, everything remained nice and neat. His need to follow through on his mission grew with each passing day, but he was disciplined enough to know when it was right and when it wasn’t.
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