Killer Romances

by Dana Delamar, Talullah Grace, Sandy Loyd, Kristine Mason, Dale Mayer, Nina Pierce Chantel Rhondeau, K. T. Roberts, H. D. Thomson, Susan Vaughan

  Mack stepped in. "You're sure you have no idea who Cia had planned to sleep with?"

  Meg shook her head. "No, none at all." She shrugged. "Considering who was there, there weren't that many choices."

  "Already sleeping with Josh; she had been sleeping with Chad, here..." Shuffling papers, Mack asked, "Don't know about Bruce, so that leaves Pero, Anto and Tim. Was there time for Cia to disappear to meet up with this mystery date?"

  Chad stared at Meg. She stared back. Chad shook his head saying, "I don't know. I wouldn't have thought so."

  "I don't know for sure." Meg lifted her shoulders. "And we never saw Cia after she went into the tent."

  "If she went to the tent…"

  "Right." She switched her gaze back from Mack to Chad. "And if she didn't, she could have walked off. We'd always considered that she might have run after you guys to join the hike. I hadn't considered she might have been having a tryst." Even that old fashioned word seemed wrong. She tried to look at it from a different perspective, and then shook her head. "No, I can't see it happening."

  "And of course, she didn't." Mack said, "Because someone killed her. Most likely, she was meeting a man or someone pissed at her who'd found out about the meeting."

  "Josh?" Chad snorted. "It wouldn't have been him. He didn't care. He was breaking up with her, anyways. Even Stephanie and I knew that. You could see it was over."

  "Over is one thing." Mack tossed his pencil down, and sprawled back, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Having someone stepping out behind your back with a buddy is another thing."

  "True. But it does happen. I can't see Josh being so angry that he'd kill her over it. And if he had, where is the other male in the picture? Had he come upon them afterwards? And then killed her? Because if he'd come up on them earlier, he'd have seen them and said something."

  "Not if both were involved."

  Both Chad and Meg stared at Mack.

  "What?" Meg asked cautiously.

  "What if Josh came upon the two of them, got angry and Cia was killed in the fight."

  "And then both of the men made a pact of silence?" Chad studied Mack. "It could shake out that way. We've certainly seen similar cases. But, not with Josh."

  Mack turned on him. "Oh and why not? Because he's a good guy? Because he's your friend? Because of what?"

  "Because he's too honest." Meg couldn't stay quiet. She knew how awkward this was for Chad as well as for her. But she doubted that Josh was guilty. "Besides, the second man is hardly going to cover for him; certainly not in the long term. He'd done nothing, so why should he care?"

  "Bullshit. Cia's death might have been accidental, a crime of passion so to speak, happening while hot tempers raged. But what about afterwards? Panic would have ensued; then, cold reason would have taken over. If they were both there, they would have both assumed they'd be held responsible. Or one could convince the other they wouldn't go down for this alone."

  Chad frowned, and Meg could almost see him considering the issue. "We wondered if there were two of them. But I hadn't considered Stephanie and someone else."

  "Stephanie? Why her? How? I don't understand." And she didn't. How had they gone from Josh to Stephanie? Nothing made sense. She hadn't once seriously considered that Cia had gone to meet someone. It had been one of the many suggestions tossed around at the time but it had so lacked in reasoning that it had been dropped. Over the years, the idea had popped up from time to time, but was then dropped again. Watching the men pull out the idea and turn it over and over yet again, made her nervous. It was one thing to consider one of her friends as a murderer. But two of them...that was hard to believe.

  "On the other hand, she might have known something or been helping someone. She was easily manipulated and easily coerced. And if she had known something, she would have been too scared to tell."

  "Or too scared of getting someone else into trouble." Meg could see that aspect. "I suppose that would also help explain her decline into drugs and all."

  "How is that?" Mack stared at her.

  "It's just that if she were hiding something, she'd feel guilty and would need to handle that guilt somehow. The easiest way would be to try to forget and how does one do that? Substance abuse is the most common way."

  "By the same token, I'd expect some kind of long term reaction from Josh if he'd been involved." Chad added. "There's a definite anger there, but more over the damage to his life because of this event. There's no guilt. No sadness and nothing to indicate he's hiding anything."

  "This, after seventeen years, is to be expected." Meg sighed. "Think about it. After all these years of keeping this information hidden, it would be normal. It would feel natural. There might be an underlying tension that permeates everything and that tension may snap at some point, but not unless something jars it."

  "But having found Cia's remains – that is a pretty big jarring." Mack added, "Our killer has to be worried."

  "Josh isn't showing any sign of that."

  Mack snorted. "Why would he? He doesn't know we are close."

  "Are you close? Do you have anything to pin this on Josh?" Meg shook her head. "If you couldn't pin it on him seventeen years ago, there was nothing on the body that could do that now either."

  "Not true. Now we know the cause of death and the location of the body in relation to the rest of you at the time."

  "And what about the necklace?"

  "A necklace I suspect Cia 'borrowed,'" Meg said. "But who could say after all this time."

  "When did you notice it missing?" Mack asked.

  "I never noticed. At least, I don't remember ever noticing it had gone missing. It wasn't an important piece for me. And after that weekend, we all packed in a rush, and our emotions were everywhere. If I'd noticed it missing then, I'd have just assumed it had been lost in the chaos."

  "That's no help."

  She stood up. "No. I wasn't much help then and I can't add anything now."

  "Except for the gossip on Cia's lovers."

  "True, if the gossip was the truth." Meg nodded. "Now, if we could find Stephanie, maybe we could ask her."

  "What about the other males? Do you know much about them?"

  "I was less with them than anyone else. Chad," she looked over at him, "you would know more about the guys than I would." She walked to the door. "I knew Bruce and Josh, but I had only met Pero and Anto a couple of times before that weekend outside of passing them in the school hallways and, as for Tim, I can't even remember his face." She shrugged. "I know some were related, but I can't remember now who was related to whom."

  "Bruce was cousin to the brothers. Their family had come over from Croatia when they were little. I think Bruce's mother was their aunt." Chad said and nodded sideways to Mack.

  "And it was Bruce's family who had a cabin on the other side of the lake, right?" Meg asked not quite understanding Chad's head motion. "Where we camped, that first time?"

  Chad nodded.

  "I want to go back." The words ripped out of her throat so fast she didn't realize what she had said.

  Chad snapped, "No."

  "I need to." She stared at him calmly. As she thought about it, she realized she really did want to go back. She wanted a chance to explore and look for anything that might give them some answers. She knew it was too late, but she couldn't get it out of her mind that maybe...just maybe, she'd find something else. "If we now know where she was found and I know where I was, and where Stephanie was, we can walk the route and time the distance from one spot to the next. It will help sort out who could have been where. And maybe catch someone out in a lie."

  "No. We were all in the woods together – and lost most of the time. We can't pinpoint their location like that."

  Mack looked over at him. "Except you gave us a pretty clear map of where you heard the other person. If we take your statement as fact, that rules the three of you out, therefore we need to plot out where everyone else was at the time."

  "And we could do i
t on a map, but it would be easier if we went there and measured it out."

  "We did that last time, and it didn't help," Chad added slowly, as if thinking this through, "but there are better tools available to us now."

  Meg checked her cell phone. "I've got to go. If you drive back, let me know. I want to come. I can help." She nodded to Mack and Chad. "The sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can find out who did this. At the moment, I'm seriously thinking it had to have been Anto."

  "Why?"

  She groaned. "Because he gave me the creeps back then." She stared at Chad. "And I'm going back up there."

  "You're not going alone." Chad's voice brooked no argument.

  She smiled gently. "Good. I don't really want to go alone. Janelle has a sleepover at her friend's house tonight. So my window to travel is now." And she walked out. She had almost made it to the front door when Chad came running up behind her.

  "Wait up."

  She stepped through the door to the top step, before turning. "What's up?"

  "I'm going to go home to grab some equipment, copies of everyone's statements and a map. Then I'll swing by and pick you up." He headed back inside without giving her a chance to respond.

  Meg made it home in record time. She packed a light bag, made a quick call to Deirdre, Linette's mother, and explained that she wouldn't be at home but available by cell phone. "We'll try to get back tonight, but just in case..."

  Making sure she had everything she thought she'd need, she packed extra gloves, and a large flashlight. She wanted to hike to the top of the slide like she hadn't been able to last time. Remembering the heavy rain, she grabbed a warm jacket and put on hiking boots. She realized Pete might have gone to his cabin. It was his place to hole up. She didn't want to intrude or get involved in an argument. It was bad timing, or, as the old saying went, worse timing.

  A sound outside had her grabbing her keys and cell phone, lifting her bag and letting herself out of the house.

  Chad waited for her in the same truck she'd seen at the excavation site. Good. At least, it would make the trip. He hadn't mentioned staying anywhere overnight. Hopefully, it wouldn't be required, but she'd packed just in case.

  And didn't that thought make her heart race! Knowing how Chad felt about her made her both uneasy and yeah… excited about the coming night. She'd spent a lot of nights with him but sleep was the one thing they'd never managed to do. But then, young love and the heated nights had been all about exploring their passion, and expressing their love. It was something she'd never experienced since.

  "Ready?" he asked.

  She looked over at him, wondering if there was a hidden meaning in that question, then realized it didn't matter even if there was. The answer was still the same.

  Clipping the seat belt firmly in place, she settled back and said with a smile. "Yes, I'm ready."

  ***

  Chad took the highway on ramp and pulled smoothly into traffic. They had a long drive ahead of them but he enjoyed driving. He hadn't mentioned staying overnight anywhere. She had enough to deal with.

  "I've been thinking about Stephanie."

  "What about her?" He took his eyes off the road long enough to search her features. There'd been a note of…he didn't know what; something hesitant, maybe even fearful. "Are you worrying about her?"

  "Of course, even if she's gone back to her old ways, it would still be bad news. Anyone who makes it out of that dark hole has made a huge change in their lives. Sliding back into it again, though…"

  "It's hard to know in her case. It isn't the first time, but she's been clean and sober for a long time now."

  "She sounded so normal when I last spoke to her. That reconnection made me more aware of who she is today and how disappearing doesn't seem normal for her."

  "Oh, it's normal, it's just you didn't see much of Stephanie before reconnecting. So your view is slightly twisted."

  "Meaning, if I'd known her these past years, I wouldn't be surprised by her actions?" She settled back into her seat. "I wonder if that's true."

  She went as if to speak once more. He waited. When she stayed silent, he asked, "What?"

  "I guess I just wondered if you were still looking for her?"

  He frowned. "Constantly – I was out last night driving around her favorite haunts. I've been asking her old employers and friends but there's no sign of her."

  "But that just reinforces what I mean. If she'd gone back to the bottle or drugs, she'd be visible. She might have gone away inside, but physically, she'd be somewhere. Right now, it's as if she's just disappeared from the face of the earth. That takes more skill than she has."

  "Skill?" he asked. "Are you suggesting someone might have helped her to disappear?" He hadn't considered that she might have wanted to run away. It did fit. "Honestly, I hadn't considered that."

  "Either willingly or unwillingly, I just don't think she knows how to drop so completely off the grid on her own. And whoever is helping her could be friend or foe. There's no way to know yet."

  "It won't likely be family. She cut ties with them years ago, and then they reciprocated when she ended up on the streets."

  "But that could have changed in the years after she cleaned up her act."

  "True." He considered the issue. "She has no credit cards, and hated bank cards because she used to steal them off other people. She used cash only."

  "But did she have money to plan ahead? I understood she was pretty much living from paycheck to paycheck. One paycheck alone isn't going to get her too far."

  "And she got paid every Friday. Five days at minimum wage buys a bus ticket across the country and not much more."

  "Exactly."

  He glanced at her again. "Who would help her?"

  Meg shrugged. "I have no idea. I don't know who her friends are."

  "She was supposed to be meeting a friend in secret, according to her neighbor."

  "And did she have a bag of belongings with her?"

  "No." And that's why he hadn't considered that she may have left for a few days. But then, why tell the neighbor about the secret meeting? Was it to throw someone off the scent and, if that was the case, why the cry for help? Maybe it was because she'd changed her mind about it.

  "Then…" Meg dropped her head on the back of the seat. "Hell, I don't know. Unless this guy, not that we know it's a guy, but this person, whoever, would be the last person to have seen her."

  "Precisely."

  "Damn. That could be anyone who doesn't want the police to call on them. It doesn't mean they were looking to hurt her. They could be helping or they could be—"

  "Her drug dealer." He sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean that to come out as harsh as it did." He opened the window slightly to bring in fresh air. "I'm just frustrated. I've done as much as I can and still it's not enough."

  Her tone weary, Meg said, "Is it ever?"

  "Sometimes."

  Silence filled the cab of the truck. Chad knew the odds of finding Stephanie were good. Given her history, she just might not be in decent shape when they found her. Finally he said, "I have to believe this time it will, too."

  He glanced over to see her reaction and realized her head had fallen against the passenger door. He glanced at the road, then back over at Meg, but her chest was rising and falling in a steady, relaxed manner. She'd fallen asleep.

  ***

  Meg came awake slowly. The steady movement of the truck rolling down the highway had lulled her into a comfortable, relaxed state. The truck engine soothed her soul. She'd needed her nap. It seemed like her nerves had been running on empty for a long time; they were just waiting for the rest of her body to follow through.

  She yawned and rolled her head toward Chad.

  "How are you feeling now?"

  She smiled. "Better. I've been running on empty for a long time."

  "Not healthy." He smiled to cut the criticism in his words.

  "I know, but sometimes it's unavoidable." She straightened to look around. "
Where are we?"

  "We're coming into Wistery. I thought we could stop for a break and pick up some coffee and maybe a bite to eat."

  "Food sounds good, coffee sounds even better." The steady countryside had gradually morphed to the odd house here and there. She saw the sign for Wistery next. "Good. It's just a few minutes down the road."

  "Actually the roadhouse is right here." Chad slowed the truck and went around a series of hairpin turns and as he pulled out on the other side, she saw the sign. "Stan's Roadhouse?"

  "We stopped here that weekend and picked up treats for the weekend."

  "Really?" She glanced at him in amazement. "Are you sure? I don't remember that at all."

  "There's not much I don't remember from back then." He pulled the truck to a stop in the front of the cafe and turned off the engine. "Ready?"

  Still stunned at what he had remembered over what she'd forgotten, she nodded. "Let's go."

  Inside, the air was cool and empty. "I guess they don't get much business."

  "It's early yet. The lunch crowd won't be here for a bit."

  She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was just after 11am. "We made good time."

  "Good. We have lots of work to do. We probably should have held off and left early tomorrow."

  "Too late now." She smiled and walked up to the front counter.

  "I'll grab this." Chad stepped up beside her. "My treat." He studied the menu for a moment then ordered a couple of large sandwiches to go and an extra-large coffee. Then he turned to her. "What do you want?"

  "Not that much," she murmured. "I eat like a normal person. But the sandwiches sound good."

  With a smirk, Chad doubled his order and then snagged a couple of wrapped muffins and coffee cake slices at the counter. He walked over to the cooler and pulled out four bottles of water to add to the order.

  "We didn't come well prepared, did we?" She eyed the stack at the counter. "Then I wouldn't have packed for four days anyways."

  "This is just for today. We are going to be working. That means keeping up our strength." With a big grin, he unpacked a muffin and took a large bite. "I missed breakfast."

  She shook her head and made a trip to the ladies' room. On her way back, she noticed a couple of people walking inside. She didn't know them, but knew the town enjoyed both the benefits and the detriments of summer residences. She wondered if the business struggled to stay afloat in the winter. Summer would be fine, but as for the rest of the year – she wasn't so sure.