Corpse in a Crate

by Winnie Reed

  She shook her head, holding tight to the crown of her wide-brimmed straw hat so it wouldn’t fall off and into the trench. “I don’t know. Maybe they were trying to install new pipes underground? Maybe fix the watering system for the orchard?” She looked up, staring down the length of the deep trench. “I mean, otherwise? It reminds me of a moat, or the beginnings of one.”

  “No, I think you’re right.” What did I know? I could stand there feeling full of myself all I wanted, but that didn’t mean I had the first clue what I was talking about.

  Raina looked up at the house inside. “It’s going to be so beautiful,” she murmured, sounding wistful.

  “It sure is,” I added with a smile which I hoped encouraged her. “And now I’m more determined than ever to get Marsha’s approval to write a story about it. I would love to help him if I could.”

  “Oh, it’ll make him so happy to hear that. He needs a boost right now, I’m sure. Dad told me he heard Nate was devastated, which I guess doesn’t come as a huge shock.”

  “No, it doesn’t.” Especially since I’d seen with my own eyes how devastated the poor guy was.

  I straightened up with the intention of walking around a little closer to the house, since nobody had come out of the woodwork to run us off the property. Maybe I was feeling a little too bold, a little too sure of myself since we hadn’t yet run up against any naysayers

  That was probably why I ventured a little too close to the edge of the trench, where the ground was very soft and very prone to collapse.

  Which, when combined with my stellar coordination, left me falling through open air.

  It was one of the funniest things, really. Those two or three seconds between having my footing and hitting the ground with a thud. So many thoughts could run through a brain in such a short span of time.

  I had the chance to curse myself for being so clumsy.

  I had the chance to imagine what the rest of my weekend would look like if I was injured and away from home.

  I had the chance to imagine how my mother would shriek at me about being so reckless. Even the thought of it set my teeth on edge and left my ears ringing.

  Oh, yes. This was going to be a lot of fun.

  The next thing I knew, I was on my back in the trench, staring up the clear, blue sky. And I couldn’t breathe.

  It was the sickest, most terrifying feeling I’d ever suffered. Nausea gripped me, my insides churning, and I couldn’t for the life of me take a breath. I thought I was going to die. I was going to die right there in the trench, staring up at the sky and wondering how a beautiful day could take a turn so quickly.

  Finally, the longest moment of my life came to an end, and my body finally let me draw a single, rasping breath. It was the sweetest thing I’d ever known, fresh air flowing into my lungs and sharpening everything around me.

  Raina appeared overhead, mercifully blocking out the sun with that hat of hers. “Oh, my God! Are you okay?”

  “Define okay,” I muttered. “I’m afraid to find out, to be honest with you.”

  “Then don’t move! Stay right there! I’ll call an ambulance, they’ll come get you out.”

  The very thought sent ice water running through my veins. “Oh, God, no. Don’t do that!”

  “Why not? Don’t be stubborn now. You might have seriously hurt yourself, and I don’t want you taking any chances!”

  “The real chance would be admitting we knew were on private property when we shouldn’t be,” I called up. I couldn’t see her face with the sun shining from behind her and the hat shading her, but I could imagine how disappointed she looked.

  It certainly disappointed the heck out of me, the thought of having to fend for myself when I could very well have broken something.

  Though it didn’t seem like anything was broken, once I took the time to get my thoughts together and start wiggling things around. I felt everything, and at the time, that seemed like a mixed blessing. I was already starting to ache, but at least I could feel all my appendages.

  All I had to do was figure out a way out of a hole that had to go at least fifteen feet underground. No big deal.

  “Wait there,” Raina called down. “I’ll see what I can do.” The fact that she was my best friend and my only hope of escape held my tongue in place. Otherwise, I would’ve asked her just where she thought I could possibly go.

  While she was away doing God only knew what, I worked my way into a sitting position. I was in one piece, though I would certainly ache for a few days. That was nothing compared to how much worse things could have been.

  I was in the process of brushing dirt from my legs and shorts when the sound of metal being moved around above the hole caught my attention. It confused me at first, leaving me scrambling around in an attempt to avoid anything falling on my head. What the heck was going on up there?

  “What are you doing?” I called up, cupping my hands around my mouth. “It won’t do us any good if you break something. They’ll know somebody was here.”

  I couldn’t have been more surprised when, a moment later, a ladder became visible that the top of the trench. A ladder which somebody worked down into the hole, lowering it slowly until the rubber feet on the ends rested against the packed soil.

  Leave it to Raina to think of something like that. Though how she had managed to move the heavy extendable ladder away from the house was beyond me. Maybe I needed to start going to the gym, after all.

  And I kept thinking that until a face appeared overhead.

  A face which I recognized instantly.

  A face which made me cringe under the weight of the stare coming from its deep-set, jade green eyes which jumped out at me even from a distance.

  “You really are determined to break your neck, aren’t you?” Joe Sullivan asked, holding onto the top of the ladder. “Get your fool self up here and explain to me what you think you’re doing.”

  “No, thank you!” I called up, waving my hands. “I think I’ll stay down here for the rest of my life. I could be happy here. I could make it work.”

  “Now, Emma,” he growled. “Or I’ll come down there, throw you over my shoulder and climb the ladder anyway. It’s your choice.”

  Little did he know what an appealing prospect that was.

  Chapter Nine

  “Can you bend your leg, please?”

  I did as I was told, moving my left leg around, doing what I could to try to ignore the fact that Joe Sullivan’s hands were on my bare skin. I was so glad I’d thought to shave my legs that morning. Having him touch my day-old stubble would’ve been the cherry on top of a crap sundae.

  He seemed satisfied with that leg, turning his attention to the right leg next. “And this one.” I bent that one, too, then rolled and flexed my feet.

  “You know, if something were broken or seriously injured, I wouldn’t have been able to climb up that ladder,” I pointed out. It seemed reasonable enough.

  He didn’t bother looking up from where he crouched in front of me, beside his car. I sat in the backseat with my legs hanging out through the open door.

  “Adrenaline can do strange things,” he murmured, moving his attention to my arms. “I’ve seen people with serious, really severe injuries do things they shouldn’t be able to do just because the adrenaline was numbing the pain.”

  “Well, good news. I’m in a ton of pain, so adrenaline isn’t an issue right now.”

  He sighed, finally looking at me. I wasn’t surprised by the disappointment etched all over his stupidly handsome face. I hadn’t seen him in a month, and somehow, he’d managed to get even more handsome during those weeks. His jaw was more chiseled, his mouth fuller, his eyes more captivating than ever. “I’m sorry you’re in pain, but maybe now you’ll start taking precautions.”

  “Now is not the time to lecture me,” I warned. “I’m still on the fence as to whether or not I’m gonna heave my guts up all over the place. I wouldn’t want you to be in the way of that.”

  He su
rprised me by chuckling. That was his way. He found the strangest things funny. I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he would be decent to hang around with in regular, everyday situations.

  Situations in which I had a leg to stand on, where I didn’t feel like everything I did and said was wrong. Situations in which he didn’t treat me like a naughty little girl who couldn’t keep herself out of trouble.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing out here, anyway?” He looked from me to Raina, who stood next to the car and watched him perform his perfunctory little examination to make sure I hadn’t broken anything or damaged myself otherwise.

  “We just wanted to look around,” Raina explained, sounding about as lame as I felt. It wasn’t often that she was caught at a loss for words, and I watched with wonder as she stammered her way through an apology while blushing in embarrassment. It was like witnessing a unicorn galloping over a rainbow.

  “There is no reason for either of you to be here right now. And you know it.” He glared at me.

  I pointed to Raina. “Hey, it was her idea, too! Don’t heap all the blame on me.”

  “Honestly, Detective, she’s telling the truth. I feel awful, because this all has to do with me. Emma wouldn’t have taken a chance like this and had that clumsy little spill if it wasn’t out of a sense of duty toward me.”

  She could’ve left the part about me being clumsy out of it, but otherwise I thought she did a pretty good job.

  Joe seemed to think so, too. “I am sorry for your friend, really. This is a tough situation. But it has nothing to do with either of you two. You would’ve done better today to just go to the beach and enjoy yourselves.”

  Needless to say, I agreed with him wholeheartedly. So did every aching muscle in my aching body. Even so, to agree out loud would be the same as betraying my best friend, and I wasn’t about to do that.

  Besides, it would also mean telling him he was right, and I tried to avoid that whenever possible.

  “How can we go to the beach and enjoy ourselves, knowing Nate is having such a hard time right now? It would seem callous if we did that.”

  Joe looked at me, shaking his head. I didn’t know if he was annoyed with me or if he admired me in spite of himself. Maybe both. “You can’t save the world, Miss Harmon,” he reminded me. “And you’d do a lot better for yourself if you remembered that. I have now had to rescue from a near drowning, and being stuck in a trench with no choice but to call the police or fire rescue to come and get you. Neither of which would’ve been a very good idea, since you would’ve had to admit why you were on the property.”

  “See?” I looked at Raina. “I told you so.”

  “Not the sort of thing to be proud about getting right,” Joe sighed.

  He stood, wiping his hands on his jeans and of course drawing my attention to them. His ability to wear a pair of jeans had not suffered in the month we spent apart, either. What was it with me and my penchant for men whose bodies were just naturally suited to pretty much any sort of clothing?

  It occurred to me that this was the first time I had seen him outside of dress clothes, the things he wore to work. “Wait a second. What are you even doing here? You aren’t on duty, or else you’d be wearing work clothes.”

  Joe scowled. “I was not aware that my clothes would be under scrutiny,” he said.

  “I wasn’t scrutinizing. I was observing.” What was it about him that left me so defensive? It was infuriating, was what was. “I hope this isn’t taking time out of your vacation or anything like that.”

  “No, it’s not my vacation, but it is my day off.”

  “So? Why are you here? Are you going to work on the case?” I couldn’t help it. The thought of having Joe on my side made my pulse flutter. At least he knew what he was doing. At least, for the most part. When he wasn’t giving me a hard time or speaking to me like he was my father.

  “No, I’m not here to work on the case. But you intrigued me.” He shrugged in a helpless sort of way, with a what can you do expression twisting his mouth up at the corners. “Something you said struck me earlier.”

  “Oh? What’s that?” I would have to make a mental note of the sort of thing to say to get Joe to come around and stop being so gruff and difficult to get through to.

  Instead of answering me, which would have been the normal and not-rude thing to do since I was the one who asked the question, he turned to Raina. “Emma said something about the police in this town being unwilling to do much to aid the Pattersons. She said it seemed the detectives weren’t inclined to take him seriously.”

  Raina nodded, eyes wide, head bobbing up and down. “I got the same feeling. It made me sick to my stomach, I’m telling you. They didn’t seem to care very much. Then again, I assumed it wasn’t exactly their job to feel sorry for him. They have their jobs to do, too.”

  Joe frowned as he thought about this but eventually nodded in agreement. “That’s true, but it’s also their job to make the public feel like they matter. No matter who they are, no matter what their last name happens to be. In fact, it strikes me as surprising for somebody with his reputation to not garner a little more concern or sympathy. I would think the police would fall over themselves trying to make things right for such an esteemed member of the community.”

  Joe saw it. I could tell by the narrowing of his eyes. I saw it, too, which was what made me look at him as he spoke in the first place.

  Something wasn’t right.

  Raina looked at the ground, her brows drawn together in concern. There was something she wasn’t telling us, something that made her feel very uncomfortable.

  “What is it?” I asked her. No way was I about to let her avoid me. She could try to avoid Joe all she wanted to, but not me.

  “It was a long time ago,” she murmured. “A very long time ago. And nobody is supposed to know about it. He was a minor, his record was expunged when he reached legal age.”

  I wished Joe wouldn’t look at me the way he did just then. I wished so hard. Like he knew it all along and had only been waiting for the chance to say he’d told me so.

  Rather than tear him a new one like I so deeply wish to do, I turned to my best friend. “What did he do?” I asked.

  “Do I want to hear this?” Joe asked. Now he sounded like a cop again, Mr. Tough Guy.

  Raina shrugged. “Do you think it really makes a difference? I’m asking you seriously. I don’t want to hurt Nate’s chances of getting what he needs, the help he needs to figure this whole thing out. But I guess if you were to ask the police anything about him, they would tell you themselves. I’m sure there are enough officers around who remember what happened.”

  I tried to be as gentle and calm as I could, so she wouldn’t feel like she was being pressured. “And what would they tell him, if they had the chance? It’s okay, you aren’t betraying Nate or anything like that. We’re trying to help. That’s all.”

  “It was all so tragic and senseless and stupid,” Reyna sighed. She leaned against the car without asking Joe if he minded her butt resting against the trunk, and he didn’t say anything. It seemed he knew the right time to let a person do what they needed to do. “Emma, you remember I told you about the sort of things the kids I knew got up to back then. They probably still get up to the same sort of thing, come to think of it.”

  I nodded, glancing at Joe. The look on his face told me he didn’t need much explanation. I guessed he’d seen pretty much everything there was to see in his line of work.

  “I was a lot younger, you know. Most of what I heard about it, I only heard through whispers and that sort of thing. But apparently, Nate was once involved in a serious car accident. He was drinking, partying with a bunch of other kids. He got behind the wheel when he had absolutely no business being behind the wheel of a car. There was a girl with him. He crashed the car.”

  I put my hand on her arm. I’m not sure she noticed.

  She tipped her head back, looking up at the cloudless sky. “I know his famil
y must’ve had the whole thing taken care of in the blink of an eye. They made sure it wasn’t in the papers. They made a big settlement on the girl’s family with the condition that nothing ever be spoken of the accident. And once Nate turned eighteen, his record was swept clean. It was less than a year before that happened.”

  “And what about the girl?” Joe asked. His voice was tight, his teeth gritted. I could just imagine the sort of things going through his head. Mainly because they were going through my head, too. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to hear how that accident turned out.

  I was pretty sure I already knew considering the way Raina’s eyes filled with tears.

  Chapter Ten

  I wasn’t sure what to expect on approaching Nate Patterson’s home. I figured it would be big, of course. A mansion. Maybe an estate, even. Some sprawling thing with hundreds of rooms and housekeepers and, what the heck, even a stable with horses. Rich people liked to ride horses, didn’t they?

  It occurred to me that I needed to expand my understanding of the world a little bit.

  Though I was hardly in the right state of mind to expand my world just then. My entire body was one large, aching bruise. I just knew my back was black and blue even if I couldn’t see it. Everything hurt, making it difficult to get in and out of the car. All I wanted to do was climb into bed, preferably with some muscle relaxers—though of course I didn’t carry a stash— and sleep the pain away for little bit.

  Of course, that would have meant admitting to Joe Sullivan that I’d really hurt myself, and I wasn’t about to do that.

  Plus, there were more important things to take care of.

  “I hope he doesn’t think we’re coming to attack him or something,” Raina fretted as we turned up the wide, winding driveway leading to Nate’s home. Gravel crunched under the tires as we passed through open iron gates.

  “Of course we aren’t,” I assured her. “And he’ll know that. We’re only coming to help. I know that if I were in his situation, I would want all friends on my side that I could possibly gather.”