by Dale Mayer
"Be that as it may, you can't leave Peppe like this. If it were our father, how would you feel?"
John snorted. "That old soldier boy would have walked off a bridge before ending up like Peppe."
"I highly doubt any of us would choose to live Peppe's not-so-golden years. I do know that we all deserve respect and to keep our dignity at times like this – and Peppe, if he really knew and understood, would be horrified."
John stared down at the tray and then back at his brother. "Do you want to come with me? Let's take a look and see how bad it really is."
"Hell no. I don't want to. But I will." Dane grinned at the dark look shooting his way. "Come on. Let's go face the Devil himself."
***
Susan cornered Jade in the computer room in the late afternoon. Jade had barely managed to get back to her charts after the euphoria and relief she felt after Tony's departure. Still the work had to be done and now that she didn't have anyone watching over her – at least no one sitting there in the room watching over her – she wanted to plow through the charts.
"Hey. How is the paperwork going?"
Susan dropped her bag on her computer station and took a tissue out of her pocket. It seemed she'd brought dozens of small packets with her from home.
"Are you getting sick?"
"I'd better not be. Tony asked me the same question." Susan grimaced as Jade twisted her face. "Yeah, he made a good impression on all of us, huh? Anyway he reminded me that there were no sick days negotiated into the contract and if I wasn't capable of working because of an illness he'd be forced to replace me."
Jade gasped. "What an asshole." She slapped the chart down on the desk beside her and turned to face Susan. "Did he just come here to upset everyone? 'Cause he succeeded. I am so glad he's gone."
"I second that. What did he do to you?" Susan asked curiously, pulling back her chair and sitting down heavily.
"He made a similar comment about my mental health, afraid that all these deaths were going to send me off the deep end…or some such bullshit."
Susan snorted. "Isn't this a fine time to worry about that?"
"I know. We're almost a month into this. If I were going to lose it, I'd have done so when we first found those bones and chains."
Susan shivered and then sneezed. After a moment, Susan added, "Maybe I should go lie down. I'd hate to have this get any worse."
"Yes, you should. It's Friday. We've put in lots of overtime already. Go. Rest and come back on Monday happy and healthy."
With a watery grin, the woman picked up her bag again. "Okay, you've convinced me. Besides, it's not as if we haven't worked on this every weekend so far."
"True enough. And this weekend won't be any different." Jade watched as Susan made a hasty exit, sneezing several times on the way. She returned to her workload.
Meg walked in five minutes later.
"So are you excited?"
"Hmmm." Jade stared at her. "What did you say?"
"I asked if you were excited. About tonight? Your hot date with Dane?"
Jade flushed. She's been trying to keep the date out of her mind all day. She found it a little hard to function with the butterflies rolling around inside. She didn't know what to expect and her clothing choices were beyond limited. But then she didn't want to get hung up on that either.
"I'm happy to be going out. Just not so secure in the whole 'date' thing."
"Aha. If you haven't been dating for a while I can see that might be a little daunting. Still you must get a lot of male attention. You're gorgeous."
Jade stared at her. Then laughed. "Aren't you a comic?"
Meg walked over and sat down beside her. "You, my dear, need to work on your self-esteem. What happened to knock that down?"
The question caught Jade sideways. She leaned back to look at the woman she'd come to view as a friend. "I'm not so sure that it's been knocked down as much as knocked back a pace or two. I had a bad breakup close to year ago and haven't ventured into that realm since."
Tilting her head sideways, Meg smiled compassionately. "That's a decent amount of time. You don't appear to be too upset over it now."
Was she? Not heartbroken, at least not now. In fact, she could honestly say that she'd had a lucky escape – at least from him. Other things that happened at the same time were more painful.
"No. I was angry for a long time, but that's dissipated." She shrugged. "I'm saddened at the way everything ended."
"And now there's Dane in your life."
Jade grinned. "Right. At least for tonight."
"Hey, he lives in Seattle and he packs a load of sex appeal into that lean rangy body, doesn't he?"
"Yeah, he does that." She'd had a hell of a time going to sleep last night because of it. Damn he looked good. That just brought back another worry. "Sex isn't an issue on a first date, is it?"
Meg raised her eyebrows. "Sex should never be an issue. It happens on some first dates if everything is hot, hot and hotter. If that's the case, then go for it. Otherwise, it shouldn't even come up." She grinned. "Although, it's a good sign if it does."
Jade grinned. "It's been a few years since my last relationship started. I'd forgotten the initial heat of attraction."
"That should have been a sign about the relationship if the heat didn't last long. So Dane has got your juices flowing, has he?"
"Hell, he's probably gotten every female in Haiti paying attention to him." Jade said it with humor but didn't know how she felt about that.
"Hot males don't make bad mates. They are often very loyal. My partner and I have been together for a decade now. I still love him and he's still the best looking guy I've ever seen." Meg's smile saddened. "That's the only thing about this job. I hate being away from home."
"No wish to settle down and start a family?"
"We've discussed it, but it's never the right time."
Meg slouched back on her chair, seeming to be unaware of her own natural beauty. Then that was probably one of the reasons Jade had clicked with her so fast. She was natural, without pretention. Jade shook her head. "Don't think there is any one right time. If you have a strong foundation, you may want to think on it. You're what…thirty-three or thirty-four?"
"Thirty-seven and turning thirty-eight in a few months. I know the clock's ticking but that's not the best determining factor. I'd rather know that gallivanting off on these jaunts is out of my system so I'm content to stay home as a mom. I want to look forward to that stage of my journey instead of feeling tied down by it."
"That's reasonable. At least then you'll be ready inside." Jade looked down at the stacks of charts in front of her. She might have to work all weekend to get caught up at this rate.
"Hmmm. What about you? No desire to have kids? Although you have more time than I do?" Meg smiled.
Inside, Jade winced. "Yes, I still have time. I've thought about it a lot. I was engaged, looking forward to starting a family. It's amazing how much your perspective changes after a breakup."
"Breakups are always tough. If you didn't make it to the married part, chances are you're much better off without him."
Jade agreed. She was so much better off. "I know that now. But that's the thing, when you're in a relationship it's hard to see what you really do have. You're too close, so to speak."
"True enough. Just don't take that kind of baggage to your date tonight. Dane looks like he's the kind of guy who gets out and enjoys life a little. Sounds like you could use the extra attention."
Jade nodded. "I'm looking forward to that."
***
The trek to Peppe's cabin took only a few minutes. They walked past a clump of spindly trees, their steps sounding loud on the hard-packed dirt path. Dane stopped and turned around. "I thought he was a lot further away. Although that's a good thing." He grinned. "I actually have plans for tonight."
John stared at him in astonishment. "Really? Who is she?"
Dane shook his head. "Not sure I want to say. I haven't let a lady get close like this in a long time. I'm taking her out tonight."
"Really? Wow!" He might have been planning to say more but they'd reached the cabin door. There was no sound from within. John climbed the first and then the second stair before turning back to his brother. "All joking aside…" He hesitated. "Peppe isn't quite right. I know I haven't said too much about him. It's complicated. He has good days and bad days but his good days are often hard to distinguish from the others."
John looked behind him quickly, uneasily. "I don't know what shape he's going to be in.
Dane looked at the cabin door behind his brother. There was a wide porch out front but the cabin had to be decades old. If it was sound, age was no problem, but this building could also use some help. Damn. He needed to have a serious talk with his brother. "My question is why is this such an issue?" He strode in front of his brother, opened the door and reeled backward. "Oh for Christ's sake."
His arm came up to protect his nose. He stumbled backwards and down the stairs, coughing. After a moment, he bent over his knees and took several deep breaths. "What is that smell? Jesus, John. Please tell me the old man isn't living in that."
"The place has been cleaned several times, but that damn smell never goes away." John winced. He stood with his back to the door, staring back the way they'd come. "That's why I can't do this. I'm standing here now because I can't force myself to go inside. How sad is that?"
Dane took several deep breaths, trying to clear his head. "Damn it, John. Leaving someone to live in that sewer is criminal. If you won't do something about this, then I will." He fisted his hands on his hips. "But you won't like my methods. I'll call in the authorities over this."
John snorted. "Like they're going to give a shit. This isn't the U.S., Dane. There aren't the same regulatory bodies there are back home." He grunted. "Besides Tasha would never forgive you. Or me. They look after their own here."
Home? That's the first he'd heard his brother refer to the U.S. as home. Did his brother want to return to Seattle? Take his family with him? Dane would have to give that some thought. In the meantime, this mess had to be dealt with. "That's fine, if they do look after their own. Living in this cabin can't be good for anyone. Damn it, John, stand and be a man."
John shuddered, releasing a deep breath. His shoulders sagged and he closed his eyes briefly. "Fine. I will look for someone tomorrow and I just won't tell her."
"You're going to have to hire more than one person or you won't keep the first one. This place needs to be burned. It's unbelievable."
John turned to face the open door and frowned. "I wonder why Peppe hasn't come out. He never misses a good fight."
"Then go in and see. For all you know the old man died from the rot in there."
Shooting his brother a dark look, John took a deep breath and raced inside. He came out several minutes later gasping for air. "He's not here. I wonder if he's taken off again?"
Dane snorted. "Hell, I wouldn't stay in there either. Does he go out much?" Dane spun around wondering where the hell the old man could have disappeared. If he carried the aroma of this cabin they should smell him miles away.
"He's been on his own for a long time so I have no idea. I've avoided coming here for months. But from what Emile and Tasha have said, he used to take off for weeks on end."
Dane hopped up, took a deep breath, pinched his nose and walked into the small cabin. There was no sign of the old man. His bed was empty, the one chair in the place… Empty. There was nothing but dirt, trash, waste.
He shuddered. Unable to hold his breath any longer, he bolted outside.
"Whew. That is beyond rank, John."
"Tasha said Emile had been shaving and washing the old man." John turned back to stare inside the small cabin. "I wonder if Tasha knows Emile hasn't been looking after him?"
"He's her brother. She has to know what he's like."
Dane stepped several steps further away, gasping for clean air. "Hell, I know what Emile's like and I can tell you he does the minimum at every turn. If he can get out of a job, he will and if he can get away with a half-assed job – then consider that done too."
John shuddered. "I wonder if he's even been feeding him?"
"I'd say chances are, he started out with good intentions a few months ago, whenever Tasha quit looking after him and then he's done less and less each trip back here. That's probably why Peppe's taken off."
John's face twisted.
"What?" Dane puzzled why John wouldn't meet his gaze.
"Tasha quit looking after her father a long time ago. She's using her pregnancy as an excuse to get out of coming to help with her father for right now, but she had a broken leg before that, remember? Anyway I don't think she's cared for him for close to a year not since the big quake, I think."
Staring at the woods around them, Dane shook his head. "Why? I don't understand. I'm trying, John but your new family is a little weird."
"I know. The thing is you don't realize just how weird until something happens. It's like the earthquake changed things. She wasn't like this a couple years ago. I loved her so much then."
"Then?" Dane jumped on that one word. It went along with John's earlier comment about back home.
John ran his right hand over his short dark hair. "I didn't mean that. It's just that she was more loveable back then. I feel like I live in a war zone. Each day I have to work hard at being tolerant and patient. Sometimes, I'm not sure I'm going to make it to the end of the pregnancy."
"As it is, I didn't think you had it in you to be this patient. I don't think I could be." Dane meant it. He thought he'd been a very patient man until he'd seen his brother. This time his brother was a bloody saint.
"I have to find a way to make this all work. I can't lose it all again."
It was that one word – again – that broke Dane's heart. "Damn it John. You have to stop letting the past haunt you. You're not going to lose Tasha. Just because you lost Elise in a car accident that doesn't mean you're going to lose every woman you love. You don't have to lose anything or anyone. If this isn't working out, you need to take another look and figure out how to make it work."
"I know… I know," he cried. "Why do you think I've been paralyzed with inactivity on the Peppe issue? And it's the same for my company. I'm bankrupt. My marriage is on the rocks and I don't know how to save it. My child is due to be born in a month and I don't know how to make that a good thing. I can't stand my li––"
John's voice cut out as if sliced by a knife. He stared at Dane, horrified. "Oh God. I didn't say that, did I?"
Dane's heart broke. "Yes, you did." He pursed his lips and thought about what John had really said. "How much of your problem is because you don't know what you really want?" John appeared to not want anything he currently had – but had he figured that out yet? Some truths had to be reached on their own. God help John if that was what he decided.
John lifted a trembling hand. "Probably everything. I should never have started my own company. I'm not cut out for it. I need a job that pays decent and lets me go home to my family every day. I can't keep doing this." John plunked down on the bottom step. "I haven't been able to tell Tasha that there's no money left. No business left."
"That's why you've been so patient and let her walk all over you?"
He nodded. "I feel like I'm coming apart at the seams. I've been waiting for the right time to discuss it, but it never comes."
"Jesus John, there is no right time for bad news. You have to tell her." Dane groaned and stared at the festering cabin in front of him. "That's why you haven't done anything about Peppe; you don't have the money, do you? What about the chunk I gave you?"
Gazing at his brother with a
defeated look, John shook his head.
"No. It's all gone."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dr. Mike stared at the bones, the poor light in the lab trailer derailing his progress. He hadn't left with the others even though it was end of work on a Friday afternoon – their time for beer out on the garden patio. And beer would be good right now. Not to mention he'd planned on talking to them about the hike he had in mind. Only he hadn't had a chance to check the options yet.
This mess with the manacles and bones sitting on his table had to be sorted out first.
He didn't know what to do with the information he had. The authorities didn't care. The local people didn't appear to care. So few people had shown for DNA tests, he was beginning to suspect all their processing would be for naught. They could have just created a second gravesite right beside the first one and moved over the bodies that didn't fit the parameters of the ones they were looking for. Would have cut the work in half.
Damn it. He knew these women had been murdered. He'd put his thirty-year reputation against it. And no one cared. That's what hurt the most. All these women mistreated, captive for who knows how long… And then they'd been murdered. And no one cared.
And the details his team unearthed weren't required or welcome because, as far as the police were concerned, this wasn't something they were going to follow up.
In the U.S. there would have been teams of specialists digging out this site to determine the type of dirt above and around, collecting the bugs etc. Here, there was only him – and his team. And he didn't have the necessary equipment to collect all the evidence and record all the details.
Tony had been adamant. Pass over the information to the authorities and get off the case. He'd said, 'There's no joy in being the bearer of the bad news here. They aren't going to thank us, not with the thousands of people unaccounted for here. Let it go. Process and move on.'
Speaking to the empty trailer, Dr. Mike said, "Right. And what about justice for these women?"
He walked over to the front of the trailer and stuck his head out. When he looked around, he could hear something rustling in the woods, only he couldn't see anyone.
