Deadly Silence

by Mary Stone

  Linc studied it, both the similarities and the differences. It was a case down in Mississippi where a young, single mother had given birth, and her baby had died. The mother, Avery Boone, filed a police report because she hadn’t gotten to see the baby before it was cremated without, she said, her consent. She was livid. She thought for sure that she had been the victim of malpractice because her baby had been perfect at its birth, and she blamed a male nurse for being suspicious, saying he’d messed with her IV twice, making her sick before her child went missing.

  Hmm. Whether this case was connected to Elise or not, Kylie would be interested. “Thanks man,” he said, folding and pocketing the article.

  “So, other than that, how are things with you two working together? You want to rip each other’s hair out, or what?”

  “Well…” He could grin about it now. Now, it was a lot better than it had been a few weeks ago. They were getting along great, now that all the stupid misconceptions and miscommunications were out of the way. “Kylie runs a tight ship. She wants things to go a certain way, and if they don’t, she gets up in arms. She already has at least a dozen people on her shit list for not doing her bidding. Me included.”

  “Yeah? I’d hate to be on your wife’s shit list. What did these poor unfortunate souls do?”

  “A bunch of things. For example, this one woman was supposed to meet her a few days ago, but never did. Didn’t call or text to say she’d be late, and when Kylie called her, she didn’t answer. Kylie was pissed. And to be honest, more than a bit worried.”

  “Jesus,” Jacob said on an exhalation of air.

  “Yeah. Right now, Allison Simmons is number one on Kylie’s shit list. But that’s subject to change, and often.” Linc looked at his friend, who had frozen with his pint glass almost touching his lips. “What’s wrong?”

  Very slowly, Jacob lowered the glass. “Did you say Allison Simmons?”

  Linc nodded. “Yeah. Why? You know her? Ad exec, I think.”

  Jacob’s face had grown ashen. “When were they supposed to meet? A couple of days ago?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  He pulled out his phone and began to scroll. “Well, Allison Simmons, who is an ad exec from downtown Asheville, was struck by a hit-and-run driver a few days ago after leaving her office building in the middle of the day. She was killed.”

  Linc’s eyes snapped to Jacob’s. He had to make sure he wasn’t joking. Not that Jacob would ever joke about something like this, but…hell. “Are you serious?”

  “Very. We have closed caption video of the incident from the garage’s security cameras and it looked pretty deliberate. We haven’t been able to find the car, and all of the victim’s co-workers said it was odd for her to leave in the middle of the day.”

  Dammit to hell, Linc thought. Here we go again.

  “She was coming to the house to meet Kylie. It’s related to the Elise Kirby case. She had a baby in the nineties that died, but from what I understand, the circumstances were suspicious and—”

  “I know about that. The report was in her file. She’d actually made two reports. The last one, she thought she saw a kid who looked like her on the street. It was actually one of my first cases. I went all over the place looking for that kid. I think I was assigned it because my supervisors knew it was a wild goose chase. We had a valid death certificate for the kid, and at the time, it was thought Allison Simmons might be a little looney because she was on bipolar meds. You think it has something to do with that case?”

  Linc stood up. “I don’t know. If it does, and that woman was mowed down because someone didn’t want her to talk to Kylie, then that means…”

  Fuck.

  “Calm down,” Jacob said, grabbing his arm. “It might have been deliberate, but it doesn’t mean that it has anything to do with Kylie.”

  Yeah, he knew that, and yet it didn’t make him feel any better. Not with Kylie’s track record of attracting trouble.

  Sure, it could’ve been nothing.

  A coincidence.

  But coincidence or not, he didn’t want Kylie alone. Especially if people surrounding this Kirby case were now dying.

  Ripping his phone out of his pocket, he jabbed in a text to her.

  It looked like he would have to make his Irish Goodbye a little earlier than he’d planned.

  23

  The creepy eighties synthesizer music blared, signaling the end of the last season.

  Kylie switched off the television and stretched, then looked around the darkened house, lit only by moonlight streaming in through the open windows.

  Damn, that Stranger Things sure was a good binge-watch.

  It was a little freaky too.

  She reached over and flipped on the light, startling some of the dogs. “Sorry, guys,” she said, “but Momma’s gotta work.”

  Also, and she hated to admit this, but the show had given her a big case of the willies. The Demogorgon…shiver. As excited as she’d been to get free of Linc the Hoverer and just spend some time in peace and quiet, she was a total wuss when it came to anything scary. Maybe she shouldn’t have taken her friend’s recommendation to watch that show? Maybe she should’ve watched some good ol’ Steel Magnolias instead?

  She switched on her laptop and tried to concentrate. She still hadn’t touched those financials. She’d been afraid to because she didn’t want to find out that they were in the red for yet another month.

  Opening up the Excel spreadsheet, she began to work on a few of the entries when her eyes caught on Jacob’s list on the coffee table beside her. A lot of the cases were so old that she couldn’t find the people involved, but there were a few that were very good prospects. She checked her email and voicemail again, hoping to find some responses from the people she’d contacted.

  But there was nothing.

  Maybe it was a lost cause. Kylie understood why these parents wouldn’t want to talk after all this time. They’d likely moved on and getting involved would only open up old wounds. Allison had been one of the few local cases from the list who’d been eager to discuss her story with Kylie, but she must have backed out at the last minute. Kylie had called and texted her numerous times since the missed appointment, but she’d gotten no response.

  Lifting up the list, she looked at another case that was in Southern Virginia. Well, it wasn’t that far away, and it’d happened only a few years ago. She could broaden her search. Maybe that would help.

  Closing down the Excel file, she opened up a search for a mother named Uma Ness, finding her email. She fired off a message to the woman, telling her she was looking into a possible child laundering ring, and asked to talk via phone briefly to answer a few questions.

  Then she put away the list and fished out the information she’d collected on the Hanson case, Greg’s old case. It wasn’t much. She’d discovered the one witness who’d described the older blonde woman making off with the baby, had died three years ago from a drug overdose.

  So…another dead end.

  She shoved it away and opened up the spreadsheet again. Financials. She had to get them done.

  She was about halfway through the long list of accounts, going back and forth between the billing files and her spreadsheet, when her phone buzzed. What she thought would be a text from Linc, asking if she was surviving, ended up being a call from Elise.

  She answered right away. “Hey, Elise. It’s so good to hear from you! I’ve been meaning to call you.”

  “Have you?” she asked in her slow, lilting voice. “Did you find any new stuff about my case?”

  Kylie sighed. “Well, not as much as I’d have hoped, honestly. It’s been a little crazy here. I’ve learned that I’m pregnant.”

  Shit! She hadn’t meant to blurt that out. This woman had lost her baby, and now Kylie was bragging about having one…two…of her own. She wanted to slap her own face.

  Elise didn’t seem affected. “Oh…you are? Congratulations!”

  “Thank you, but I’m only telling
you that because I’ve been put on bed rest after a miscarriage scare. I promise, though, that I’m trying to work through as much as I can from my home base. I’m having a hard time racking up witnesses and other people who’ve lost their babies that are willing to share their stories. But I’m trying.”

  “Yeah. Oh. Okay,” Elise said. “Thanks for tryin’, Kylie. It means a lot.”

  “Not a problem.” As she smiled, she heard a loud cracking noise somewhere upstairs. Just the house settling, probably, but it nearly made her jump to the sky.

  Chill out, dumbass. You’re acting like you’ve never been alone before!

  She tried to remind herself that, pre-Linc, she’d happily lived alone in an apartment on the UNC-Asheville campus and never had been quite so jumpy. Maybe it was her history. Or maybe she’d just gotten used to depending on Linc.

  “Oh, which reminds me. I wanted to ask you. When you first found out you were pregnant and were looking into your options, did you visit any clinics, Planned Parenthood, counselors…anything like that?”

  “Well…yeah. I visited one, I think. My friend took me. Somewhere downtown, I think. An adoption agency. But that was before I decided I wanted to keep Daisy.”

  The hair on the back of Kylie’s neck stirred, her spidey senses going to work.

  “Okay, this is important. Do you remember the name of the agency?”

  “Ummm…” She was quiet for a long time. “No. Darn it. I can’t.”

  Kylie closed her eyes but forced her voice to remain calm. “That’s okay.”

  It was probably Children’s Hope, which was closest to her house.

  It didn’t prove anything, just that if Elise had filled out any paperwork, there would be a record that she was pregnant. People would have known about the baby, and that she was having second thoughts on it, she was scared, and she was poor. She really was the perfect target for this kind of thing.

  “How’s Britt?”

  “He’s so cute!” Elise squealed like a child. “I really love him. Tell your husband that Cody and I took him to the vet. He got his shots. Didn’t like them one bit. But no one likes shots, I guess.”

  “That’s great, Elise,” Kylie said. She still got the feeling Linc was a little sore over losing the puppy. At least she could report to him that Britt was being well taken care of.

  “Tell your husband thanks for lettin’ us have him.”

  “I will. We’re both glad you’re enjoying him and that he has such wonderful parents.”

  Elise giggled, making Kylie smile. “Yes, we do treat him like he’s our baby. Cody cuddles him more than he cuddles me now. I’m gettin’ to be the jealous one.”

  “Aw, I’m sorry. That’s too bad,” Kylie said with a laugh. “Well, I’ll be sure to keep you updated on any developments. And if you do think—”

  “I meant to talk to you about somethin’ else,” Elise broke in, speaking more quickly than usual. “Somethin’ a little weird.”

  “Okay…”

  “A couple weeks ago, a man came into the diner. He was kind of old, nothin’ much to look at, like a million other guys I wait on. They try to flirt with me all the time, and I’m just my normal nice self.”

  “What happened?” Kylie prompted.

  “Well, I never seen this guy before, but he was nice. Flirty like. Ordered a lot of food and gimme a good tip. And then he was gone, and I thought nothin’ of it.”

  “All right,” Kylie said as Vader picked up his head and put it on her lap for a pet. She stroked his ears, the way he liked. “And…?”

  “And well…a couple days ago, I got off a late shift. I was goin’ to my car, and then I look up as I get inside, and there the same man is, just sittin’ in his car, smokin’ a cigarette. Watchin’ me.”

  Kylie pressed her fingers to her lips, unsure what to think or how to react. Elise was pretty and not very bright…an easy target for all the asshole men of the world. Or…something sinister could be at play.

  “You were all alone, at night, in the parking lot?”

  “Yeah. The lights and such ain’t much good, either.”

  “Elise, listen to me. The next time something like that happens, you should call the police. When did this happen?”

  “Well, that’s the thing. It happened two days ago. And then it happened again, last night.”

  “Elise!”

  “But I got smart last night. I asked Gary, our big, scary dishwasher, to walk me to my car. Guy in the car took one look at him and sped away right quick like.”

  Kylie shook her head. Poor Elise was probably so discouraged by the last case she’d contacted the police about, she didn’t trust them. “I know you might not trust the police now, Elise, but really, the next time you see that man, you contact them. I’m a private investigator, and I’m just as well equipped to handle that as you are. Meaning that I’m not. You’re lucky he didn’t follow you home. You always make sure you have someone with you, do you hear me?”

  Geez. She was already sounding like a mother.

  “Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Kylie. I am really happy for you. And that baby of yours.”

  Kylie smiled. Well, she’d already spilled one secret. Might as well spill the other. “It’s two, actually.”

  “Twins. Oh. That’s so nice, Kylie. You’ll make a good momma. Your house will be so full of love. All those puppies and two sweet babies.”

  Well, that was the plan. A madhouse, and yet a wonderful, loving, happy one.

  Kylie wished Elise good night and ended the call, wondering if it was the pregnancy hormones that had her slipping into a maternal role with the young woman. Elise wasn’t much younger than she was, but Kylie felt so protective of her. Only a few short years ago, Kylie hadn’t thought she had a nurturing, motherly bone in her body.

  She went back to finishing up the financials, and a few minutes later, she stared in disbelief at the bottom line of the spreadsheet.

  They were thirty whole dollars in the black.

  Kylie’s mouth dropped open, and she started to do some wild sofa dance, pumping her arms and getting as crazy as she could for a person on bed rest. As she did, her phone buzzed with an incoming call from Linc.

  There it was, the expected check-in. Officer Linc Coulter, reporting. Oh-nine-hundred hours.

  Grabbing it, she answered with a whoop. “Guess what? You’ll never—”

  “Kylie, listen to me,” he demanded, talking over her. “I want you to go around and make sure all the windows and the doors of the house are locked.”

  It wasn’t so much the concern in his voice than it was the fact that he actually wanted her to rise and be on her feet. As she stood, Vader and Storm looked around in concern, raising their heads from their respective dog beds. They could probably hear Linc’s authoritative voice blasting through the speaker.

  “Why? What’s—”

  “Do it, Kylie.” He was gruff, barking. “Then sit tight. I’m coming home right now.”

  Talk about overkill. She hated to close out the heavenly mountain breeze that was blowing through the windows, rustling the curtains, and making everything delightfully cool and comfortable after such a stagnant day.

  But all right.

  “Are you sure you’re just not using me as an excuse because you’re sick of the social scene?”

  “No, this is serious. Do as I say.”

  She closed the two windows behind her, then went to the door and sealed that too, turning both of the heavy-duty locks that Linc had installed despite the fact that they rarely ever got visitors up here. Then she went to the kitchen and closed the window over the sink. It immediately felt stuffy.

  “All right. I did it, but I don’t like it,” she said, grabbing the smallest cannister on the counter. As long as she was up, she might as well make herself a cup of decaffeinated peach tea.

  “Listen. That woman that you were supposed to meet? Allison? She’s dead. She was mowed down by a hit-and-run driver right before she was supposed to come meet with you.”


  Kylie’s breath caught in her throat. “What? Oh my god. Really? She’s dead?”

  “Yeah. They think it was deliberate.”

  Deliberate? Kylie thought of her conversation with Elise. What were the chances the man spying on Elise was the same one who’d gone after Allison?

  That was ridiculous. Why would someone be after those people just because they were trying to tell their story?

  Unless…unless they were getting too close to the truth. And if they were getting too close, it was only because Kylie, herself, was headed in the right direction.

  She stood there, feeling dazed, holding the tea cannister in her hands. Suddenly, her stomach hurt.

  “I’m coming home,” Linc said quickly. “I’ll be there in half an hour. Don’t panic.”

  She snorted. Who was the one panicking?

  “I’m fine. Just enjoy yourself, my love. And also, know that if you come home without my three plates of barbecue, you’re a dead man.”

  “Kylie, I really should—”

  “Stop.”

  “But—”

  She tapped her toe on the floor. “Seriously. Stop. I’m okay, and you can’t bail on your best friend’s party.”

  “All right.” He heaved out a long breath. “I’ll only be gone a little while more.”

  “Great. I’d say for you to stay until you turn into a pumpkin, but I really want that barbecue.” She hoped her attempt at humor would settle him.

  “I know. Just be safe. Kylie, I don’t know if this is the best…”

  She opened the top of the tea kettle and started to fill it with water at the sink. “Come on, Linc. It’s all good. The doors are locked. The windows are closed. I’m safe, and I promise you there is no one out on top of this mountain but me and this herd of Newshephardlands. So just relax and—”

  Crack!

  The window in front of her shattered, and she dropped the kettle and fell to the floor as shards of glass rained down upon her like a relentless hailstorm.