Just For A Heartbeat (Piper Anderson Legacy Mystery Book 2)

by Danielle Stewart

  “So we all go?” Ruby asked, swallowing hard, wondering if she had the strength for two excursions in one week.

  “You don’t have to,” Patrick said gently. “You can stay here and keep working, maybe on the film supply angle.”

  Ruby considered what she would face if she went and what she would miss if she stayed. There was no way to know right now if Dan Corban had been the man to attack her outside her house and drive her unconscious body down to the water. She’d never seen the man’s face, but what if the boat was the same? She’d struggled to identify it years ago at the police station but that was the shock. Maybe now there would be clarity. “I want to go,” she asserted definitively.

  Bobby closed his computer and stood. One hand came to his chin as he rubbed the stubble and looked at them seriously. “This has the chance of compromising any future investigation. No one does anything unless I give them the go ahead. We aren’t tampering with evidence. We aren’t approaching a suspect who might be capable of murder. This goes my way or not at all, are we clear?”

  Patrick and Ruby nodded but Piper snickered and rolled her eyes. “He’s only talking to you two,” she clarified.

  “You going to be all right getting back on the ferry?” Bobby asked Ruby quietly as they headed back into the house. “I know how difficult that was for you.”

  “If you don’t mind watching me fall apart I promise to put myself back together when the boat docks.” She smiled but darted her eyes away, still feeling embarrassed.

  “Hey,” Bobby said, catching her shoulder before she could spin away. “You don’t have anything to worry about. If it is this guy who hurt you, we’ll get him. He won’t touch you again. I hope once we do get him, you’ll feel better. I know the world seems scary, but there’s a lot of us out there who’d be lucky to call you a friend.”

  “I thought you didn’t like me,” Ruby said, fighting back her emotions and gushing gratitude.

  “That’s how you know he does,” Piper said as she passed. “He’s hardest on the people he cares about.”

  “We need a plan,” Patrick said, slapping his hands together. “How are we going to get this guy?”

  “He’s a fisherman,” Piper smirked. “We’re going to use bait.”

  Chapter 21

  “You’ve got five minutes,” Bobby reminded Piper. “Keep your phone line connected so I can hear what’s going on. If you need anything say the code word.”

  “Obstacle,” Piper said, pulling her hair up into a ponytail and slipping her phone into her pocket. “I’ll be fine. I’m not his type. Too old for him.”

  “Right, but if you bust in on his little house of horrors that might be motivation enough to kill you and chop you up,” Bobby reminded her, running his hand down her cheek and kissing gently.

  “I’d like to see him try,” she said as she balled her hands into fists and stared at the mobile home down the hill from their car.

  “Don’t be a bad ass,” Bobby demanded. “Just do your job and come back. You two stay here. I’m going to find a good vantage point so if Piper needs me I can get to her fast. Have the car running and ready to go just in case.”

  “I’m pretty handy in a fight,” Patrick said, cracking his knuckles dramatically. “Don’t you want me down there?

  “So is my gun,” Bobby replied, patting his hip. “Stay put.”

  “You did really well on the ferry,” Patrick said, as both Bobby and Piper disappeared down the dirt road toward the trailer, Bobby splitting off to the woods.

  “I hope they know what they’re doing,” Ruby said nervously. “If something happens to them because they were trying to help me, I won’t forgive myself.”

  “The more I get to know them the more worried I am for this Corban guy.” He hopped out of the car and got into the front seat, ready to drive if needed. Patrick kept his eyes on the trailer, which made it easy for the stranger to come up behind the car. It was two loud knocks and a shout that got their attention.

  “Hey,” the scraggily bearded man with eyes mostly covered by brows said as he leaned against the window to get a better look at them. “What the hell are you two doing over here? This is private property.”

  “Sorry,” Ruby choked out, instantly breaking into a sweat.

  “We were looking for the boat slips,” Patrick said, stepping out of the car and clearing his throat. “GPS told us it was this way.”

  “Well, it’s not,” the man coughed out, twitching and sniffling. “You need to get away from my property.”

  “You look like you fish,” Patrick said, gesturing at the man’s gear slung over his shoulder. “Can you tell us how to get there?”

  Ruby thought fast as she grabbed her phone and snapped a quick picture of what was happening in front of her. Though his hair was long and dirty she could tell this man matched the picture Alison had shown them of Dan Corban. She sent the photograph to Bobby’s cell phone, although with the spotty service she wasn’t entirely sure it went through.

  “Damn tourists,” he grumbled, peering into the car to get a better look at Ruby. “You can stay parked up here and walk this path down. There ain’t much to see. Just don’t mess with my boat. The blue one with the mermaid painted on the side.”

  “This path here?” Patrick stalled, waving Ruby out of the car. “Thank you. We’ll be sure to stay clear of your boat, and we’ll move our car as soon as we get back. Can I ask you something else?”

  “What?” Corban barked, adjusting his gear on his shoulder. Before Patrick could interject, Corban’s cell phone rang, and he tossed his gear to the ground as he answered. “What the hell is it, Alison, I’m busy.”

  Ruby froze, her hand still on the car door as she pushed it closed. A pain like lightning rolled up her back and left her mind with very little control over her body. She couldn’t will it to do anything while she listened to Corban grumble at his sister over the phone.

  “We’ll drive there,” Patrick said, gesturing with his chin for Ruby to get back in the car.

  “Bobby and Piper,” she mouthed, helplessly staring at Corban as he listened intently to his sister on the other end of the line.

  “What did they look like?” Corban asked, eyeing Patrick and then gazing at his pile of fishing gear on the ground in front of him. “Oh yeah?” he continued, bending slowly and flipping open his tackle box.

  “Get in the car,” Patrick said, stepping between Corban and Ruby, reaching with one hand for the car door, but fumbling.

  “Got to go now, Alison, I’ve got company.” Corban hung up the phone on the last word and tossed it down into his bag. “Seems like you two have been making the rounds with my family.” The large jagged steel blade of a knife emerged from Dan’s bag and caught the sun light.

  Patrick finally yanked open the car door and practically shoved Ruby in, nearly catching her feet as he slammed it closed. “Lock it,” he ordered, stepping away from the car to lead Corban toward the woods and off the road.

  “I can come back for her,” Corban laughed manically.

  “Like Pacey?” Patrick asked, somehow keeping his nerves in check. Ruby hopped over the seats toward the front and dug through the glove box and center console looking for anything that could help. “She was your first, right? But the others, you didn’t know them. How many were there all together?”

  “I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do to you,” Corban said through gritted teeth. “Now I know what’s going to happen. You should have kept your mouth shut.”

  “I’ve never been very good at that,” Patrick retorted, raising his hands up, palms out, ready to fend off whatever attack Corban was planning.

  “I’m good at this,” Corban countered, a proud smile on his face. He lunged forward, the knife narrowly missing Patrick’s right arm as he pulled it away and shoved Corban forward with his own momentum.

  “Not so easy when your victim isn’t a girl half your size,” Patrick taunted as Corban tumbled into the dirt and gravel.

  “I�
��m gonna drain every drop of blood out of your body,” he threatened, bouncing back to his feet with surprising speed. He was sturdy and jumpy all at once. “Then I’m gonna pull that girl out of the car and slice her to bits.”

  Ruby hated herself for how little she was doing to help Patrick. His life was hanging in the balance and here she was locked up in the car watching like a spectator in a gladiator ring.

  “Don’t,” Patrick shouted, turning his attention for a split second toward Ruby whose hand was back on the door. “Don’t you dare unlock that door.”

  She pulled her hand away so he could see, her distraction enough for Corban to charge again. This time he anticipated Patrick’s move and overcompensated, the two of them tumbling to the ground, all arms and elbows flailing and rolling. It was Patrick who landed on the top, scuffling backward and to his feet as the knife slashed across his chest, snagging on his shirt. He closed his hands around Corban’s wrist and muscled his arm to a painful breaking point.

  “Drop it,” Patrick ordered, trying to dodge the fisherman’s other hand, which was grabbing at his hair by the handful.

  “Duck!” Piper yelled from behind Corban, and even though he couldn’t see her, Patrick instantly obeyed. He broke his grip on Corban’s arm and hit the deck. Ruby saw Piper’s arm draw back and pitch like she was trying out for the major leagues. A rock the size of a baseball flew through the air and struck its intended target in the head just as Bobby charged over the hill. The contact made an unnaturally loud thud Ruby could hear through the closed car window. His eyes went wide, then blinked slowly as his legs crumbled beneath him.

  The next thing Ruby knew, Bobby’s boot was kicking the knife clear across the road, followed quickly by a slam of his knee into Corban’s back. “Don’t move,” he ordered aggressively.

  “Nice throw,” Patrick joked to Piper as both she and Ruby raced over to him. “Did you pitch or something in high school?”

  “Did he cut you?” Ruby asked, pawing at the tear in Patrick’s shirt, horrified to see blood.

  “A scratch,” Patrick said, shrugging as he showed a small slash across his chest. “It’s nothing. You need a hand there, Bobby?”

  “Nope,” he replied, pulling the now subdued and handcuffed Corban to his feet. “Call the locals will you, Piper? I’m going to get Tyson on the line. If this turns into something I want him here early in the investigation.”

  “Oh, it’s going to turn into something,” Patrick said, taking his foot and flipping over the duffle bag Corban had pulled the knife from. Spilling out into the dirt were three rolls of film stored in identical fashion as the ones Ruby originally discovered. “Look familiar?” he asked Ruby who had no intention of closing the gap between herself and Corban. Instead she rose to her tiptoes and peeked into the pile of film.

  “The tubes are the same,” she confirmed, taking a few steps back, bumping awkwardly into Piper who was calling the local police.

  Bobby slammed Dan Corban into the hood of the car and pinned him there. “Take Ruby down to the water and check out his boat.”

  “Is that legal; don’t we need a warrant?” Ruby asked a shake in her voice.

  “Not if you aren’t a cop,” Bobby shrugged. “I’m not suggesting you get on the boat or touch anything. Just check out where it’s docked and what you can see.”

  “They’re on their way,” Piper announced, walking quickly toward Dan. “What are we going to find on that film?” she asked, pointing toward the ground. “I suggest you cooperate. The cops will be here before you know it, then the Feds. You’re done either way. I can tell by the look in your eyes, you keep your trophies. You have them all, don’t you?”

  “Lawyer,” Corban said flatly, looking completely unfazed by Piper’s attempt at prodding.

  A flash of clarity lit in Ruby’s brain. Making her world small and quiet had also given her the opportunity to make her mind deep and diverse. Over the years she had learned four languages, perfected knitting, and honed her baking skills. But she’d also sharpened her logic, her ability to dissect a situation. “What about your sister?” she asked Dan as he pushed past Patrick, emboldened by her idea. “How do you think Alison is going to handle finding out her daughter, your niece, has been dead all these years?”

  “Leave Alison out of this,” Corban barked, and Bobby’s face lit with understanding. He gave Ruby a subtle nod to continue.

  “They’ll figure out you wrote those letters. They’ll figure out the photographs I found of your handiwork is linked directly to your boat. Anyone with eyes will be able to tell the ring on that hand is Pacey’s ring. You really think her mother won’t recognize her even by the pieces you left behind?”

  “Pacey, she . . . uh,” he stuttered. “Pacey is alive. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Alison will be destroyed when some stranger, an FBI agent, sits her and Hank down and tells them you killed their daughter and dismembered her body. You think she’ll survive that?”

  “I’m not saying anything else,” Corban said, biting hard on his lip. “Alison won’t believe you,” he continued, shaking his head.

  “Think about what you have on your boat. Think about what they’ll find. When the FBI forms a concerted effort to locate Pacey and comes up completely empty, Alison will know. Don’t you want to keep her from that pain?”

  “Keep her from it?” Corban asked, narrowing his eyes, his face full of skepticism.

  Ruby raised an eyebrow at him. “From the pain of finding out in some cold cruel way. Wouldn’t you want the chance to explain to her?”

  “In exchange for what?” Corban asked, his hard outward bravado beginning to show cracks.

  Ruby, surprised the angle had worked so quickly, glanced over at Bobby who jumped in. “You will provide us with enough information to identify each of your victims.”

  “Fine,” Corban said through gritted teeth. “But I want to be able to tell Alison it was an accident.”

  “There’s more,” Bobby cut back in, yanking Dan’s handcuffs and spinning him around so they were eye to eye. “I want locations of their remains. Their families deserve that peace.”

  “Can’t do it,” Dan shrugged looking smug again.

  “Then you get nothing from me,” Bobby said angrily.

  “No,” Patrick corrected, “he didn’t say he wouldn’t tell you where the bodies were. He said he can’t. Why not?”

  “I’m not sick,” Corban said, suddenly seeming interested in whether or not they believed him. “I didn’t cut them up because I’m some sicko. I didn’t get any pleasure out of it.”

  “Then why did you?” Piper asked, her eyes scanning across his face like a lie detector test.

  “Because that’s what you do with chum,” he replied as if reporting casually on the weather. “People think it’s enough to just dump a body in the middle of the ocean and expect it to become lunch for whatever wild life happens to be floating by. Or they think if they tie the body down it’ll just sink to the bottom forever. But the flesh, it breaks away and the ropes or the chains, they let go and God knows where the tide can take it from there.”

  Bobby, looking like the only one of the group who could keep himself from getting distracted by the imagery, kept Corban talking. “So cutting them up means they’re more likely to be eaten, and the evidence destroyed?”

  “Well, it’s more than that,” Corban replied. “You have to know where the most ravenous marine life is. I study. Track migration patterns and feeding spots. I make sure what I throw in doesn’t last.”

  “Who,” Patrick said, a fierce bite to his voice. “Not what you threw in, it’s who you threw in. They were people, little girls whose parents were at home waiting for them. Your own niece, for hell’s sake.”

  “Pacey was an accident,” Corban boomed. “That’s what I want to tell Alison. I didn’t kill her. She was high when she came to my boat. Running away, it was already her plan. Pacey used paper and a pen from my boat to write the first letter
to her mom. It had all her plans and all her reasons. When I tried to convince her to stay with me she slapped me, and I just snapped. I shoved her and she fell and hit her head. I think she died right away.” Corban’s eyes glazed over as he stared off, obviously still having some sort of regret about killing Pacey.

  “You panicked?” Bobby asked, helping Corban frame up what they hoped would be his formal statement. The sound of sirens began to creep in between the tall trees.

  “I didn’t want Alison to have to suffer. I didn’t want her to lose Pacey. I found a way to keep her alive.” There was a misplaced expression of pride on his face that Ruby wanted to slap off.

  “But the rest of them?” Ruby asked, her breath catching. “Pacey wasn’t the only girl.”

  “Once you do something,” Corban said, a devilish smile curling his lips. “Once you are something there is no going back. You can’t stop being a killer, even if you don’t kill anyone else. It’s just what you are. I was helping these girls. They were all like Pacey. They were unhappy, ready to run, ruining their lives. They all just came with me, like I was going to be their way out. And in a way I was.”

  “How many?” Piper asked, not needing to qualify that question, all of them knowing what she meant.

  “Twelve,” Corban said, offering no other explanation.

  The blue lights were approaching, a long line of cars reaching toward them. “It’s over now,” Bobby said with a sigh. “You understand that, right?”

  “You better come through with what you said about Alison. I want to be the one to explain,” Corban said, struggling some against the cuffs.

  “Identify all the victims,” Bobby challenged, “and I’ll make sure you get to Alison first.”

  Ruby felt bodies blow by her, and thundering voices scrambling for information buzzed in her ears. Patrick was by her side suddenly, guiding her back a few steps, out of the way. His hand was pressed to his chest, holding the cut that was more than the scratch he described.