Corpse in a Crate

by Winnie Reed

  I caught sight of Raina glancing into the rearview mirror, where Joe’s car could be seen following us. I knew what that look meant. “He’s a friend, too,” I assured her, even if I wasn’t quite so sure myself.

  “He’s a cop.”

  “And from what I can tell, a cop would be the best sort of friend a person could have in this situation. Right? You want somebody on your side who knows the ropes, somebody who understands what the detectives are going to be looking at. It’s like having the answer key to a big exam.”

  “Like cheating, you mean?” She snorted. “Not exactly reassuring.”

  “Sorry. I’ll be more reassuring when I don’t feel like curling up in a ball and crying.” I rolled my shoulders back and forth, wincing as I did.

  “I have to tell you, it’s a real shame you couldn’t see Joe taking the ladder from the side of the house and carrying it over to the hole,” Reyna giggled. “It was really hot. I mean, granted, he startled me. I didn’t know he was there. I thought we were completely alone.”

  “You and me, both,” I agreed, catching sight of his car in the passenger side mirror. “He must’ve parked behind the house, someplace we couldn’t see him from the orchard.”

  “He was very take-charge, and extremely concerned. I could see it all over his face.”

  “He’s a cop. It’s his job to be concerned about people.”

  “That wasn’t professional concern,” Raina assured me with a knowing smile.

  “So which is it? Is he a bad guy who won’t give Nate a fair shake, or is he my knight in shining armor? Because he can’t be both.”

  “Who says he can’t be both?” she challenged, cocking an eyebrow.

  “I’m hardly thinking about romance right now. And even if I was, he would be the last person I would consider.” I looked out the window, chewing my lip. “Besides. He can’t stand me. It’s obvious.”

  “Oh, sure. It definitely looked like he couldn’t stand you what he was running his hands up and down your legs.” I had to keep my face turned away so she wouldn’t see the way I blushed.

  “Where the heck is this house?” I asked as a means of changing the subject. It was a legitimate question, too, seeing as how we were still going up the driveway but hadn’t even come close to anything resembling a house. “This driveway stretches on forever.”

  “It should be coming up soon. I remember visiting here once or twice when the house belonged to Nate’s parents.” Sure enough, within moments the house came into view.

  If it could be called a house. Sure enough, it looked like something out of a reality show about billionaires. But it wasn’t one of those gaudy, nouveau riche type places. It would have looked completely reasonable in the middle of the English countryside, some squire’s manor.

  Once again, I had no idea what I was talking about even to myself. All I could do was sit back in wonder. “He seems like such a down-to-earth kind of person,” I murmured.

  “So do I, don’t I? You’ve been to my parents’ house.” Yes, and her family’s two-story penthouse apartment in the middle of the Upper East Side of Manhattan brought to mind a museum. It was full of rare artwork and first edition books from respected authors. I could barely breathe in that place, and somebody as clumsy as me was not meant to be in an apartment full of crystal and china and so many other valuable objects.

  “That’s true,” I allowed.

  We came to a stop in a massive turnabout in front of the house, one with a marble fountain in the center. Mermaids frolicked on a rock, holding humongous conch shells which must’ve been where the water came from. There was no water flowing through the fountain just then, which was sort of a letdown, since I could imagine how gorgeous it would be.

  Joe pulled in behind us and was out of his car in a shot, opening my door before I barely had time to take a breath. “What, no household staff to greet us?” he chuckled, winking at me as he tried to help me out of the car.

  “I really don’t need any help,” I protested, even as my legs screamed otherwise. Just sitting for twenty minutes in the same position had left me hopelessly stiff.

  “Just the same, let me help you.” He was shaking his head as I stood up on shaky legs. “Honestly, I’ve never known anybody so determined to have her own way.”

  “I choose to take that as a compliment,” I sniffed, sliding the strap of my purse over my shoulder and biting my tongue to keep from groaning in discomfort.

  Raina, meanwhile, was already on her way to the front door.

  “She’s pretty intense over this,” Joe observed in a quiet voice. “Is there something between them?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” I whispered. “She told me it was nothing more than a teenage crush on her part, but then again she never told me about the car crash, either.”

  That was something I hadn’t gotten over yet, and the surprise was still fresh. It made sense, her keeping it a secret. She didn’t want to feel like she was betraying him by spilling her guts to me. And she made a point, too. What happened was in the past, and most people made stupid mistakes when they were teenagers.

  Though most mistakes didn’t involve vehicular homicide while under the influence.

  I couldn’t help it, but what she told us about Nate’s past cast him in a different light. I didn’t want to judge him, but how was I supposed to look at him without remembering? Without imagining what it must’ve been like for that poor girl in the car?

  By the time we got to the door, it was opening. An older, gray-haired gentleman stood in the doorway, and he looked us up and down like a trio of vagrants.

  Lucky for us, we had Raina. “Johnson! I don’t know if you remember me. Raina Delancey. My father is Derek Delancey?”

  Just like that, Johnson became a friend. His stern expression melted into one of fondness. “Of course, Miss Raina. It’s been a long time since you visited us.”

  “Too long,” she smiled. “Is Nate home?”

  “Who is it, Johnson?” Nate’s voice rang out inside the house, echoing like he was standing in the middle of the cave. A moment later, I saw him, and the difference that only twenty-four hours made was enough to take my breath away.

  Just yesterday, he had been a man on top of the world. Somebody who’d finally won a lengthy, contentious lawsuit. He’d been busy, harried, filthy, but he’d been happy and full of hope. He had practically glowed with radiant energy and a sense of satisfaction, knowing his project was moving forward.

  Now? He hadn’t bothered to shave, his cheeks covered with sandy stubble. He looked like he hadn’t slept, either, and his eyes were puffy and bloodshot. Had he been drinking? Maybe. Maybe he’d crawled into a bottle as a way of soothing his troubled mind.

  “Nate,” Raina said on a breath.

  Johnson stepped aside so we could enter the marble foyer. And there I was, wearing a pair of shorts that I’d barely been able to brush all the dirt from.

  “Houses like this should come with a dress code,” I whispered to Joe, who chuckled.

  “And who’s this?” Nate asked, nodding to Joe.

  “Joe Sullivan. I’m a friend of Emma’s.”

  I tried not to fall over in shock at that description. A friend? Sure, it was easy to explain himself that way. Better than admitting he was—

  “He’s a detective from Paradise City, New Jersey,” Raina explained.

  I could practically feel Joe rolling his eyes in frustration. I didn’t even have to look at him to know he was annoyed with her for revealing what he wasn’t ready to reveal yet.

  And judging by the way Nate stiffened and took a step back, I could see why he had neglected to share that little tidbit. Obviously, after everything he’d been through in the last day, Nate was hardly in the mood to hash things out with yet another detective.

  Joe held his hands up, palms out. “Off duty,” he assured him. “I came down as a favor to Emma, because both she and Raina are upset for you and want to help. Emma got herself tangled up in a case rece
ntly on which I was assigned, and I know from past experience that she isn’t one to give up easily. Not when she takes it into her head that a person is innocent and deserves assistance.”

  “We only want to help you,” Raina assured him. If she had taken him in her arms and pressed his head to her chest like he was a little boy in need of comfort, it would’ve completed the picture. She was genuinely stricken for him, and longing to help.

  Nate relaxed somewhat, running his hands through hair that didn’t look like it had been washed or combed yet that day. “Sorry. I’m a little hand shy at the moment, if you get what I mean.”

  “Nobody could blame you for that,” Joe assured him. “Is there anywhere we can sit down? Emma here had a little bit of a spill earlier, and I get the sense that she would be more comfortable if she were sitting.”

  Even now, I wanted to bristle against his solicitousness. At the same time, a little voice inside my head asked me what the heck my problem was. He was trying to be nice. Why was I so determined to hold that against him?

  Nate led us to a sitting room which looked like something out of a public broadcast historical drama. The walls were lined with books from floor to ceiling, and the bookworm in me couldn’t help but thrill a little over the thought of what the shelves would contain. My fingers practically itched to run over those spines.

  We sat on a striped sofa that felt like it was covered in silk, and again I couldn’t help but be embarrassed over my condition. “I’m a little dirty,” I said as a way of apologizing. “Maybe I should sit on a blanket or something?”

  It was clear Nate couldn’t possibly care less from the way he waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I never did like that sofa. If I had my way, none of this fancy furniture would be around here. My parents ask that I keep it as it is. That was one of the conditions of them giving it to me.” His eyes scanned the room. “Like I need all of this space when it’s just me and the staff.”

  I nodded, as if I could actually relate. Not.

  He sank into a wingback chair, slumped over with his elbows on his thighs. “I keep thinking this is a nightmare I’ll wake up from, but something tells me it won’t be that easy. Every minute the equipment around the farm sits idle, I’m wasting more and more money. I already sank so much into this project, much more than even my lawyers and advisers thought was wise. I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I was trying to get back at Kevin for fighting me for seven years. I don’t know. I wanted a way to show him he couldn’t have what he wanted just because he wanted it. I guess he’ll be the one getting the last laugh in the end, won’t he?”

  “I feel for your situation,” Joe murmured. “It does seem as though the timing was a little strange, as well.”

  “What do you mean?” Nate asked, looking up from his feet for the first time since he sat down. There was a spark of hope in his eyes, like somebody was on his side. Somebody who might know better than a pair of civilians what his chances were of getting out of this unscathed.

  And Joe, for his part, looked like he wished he hadn’t said a word. He was smart enough to understand that it would be a bad idea to give Nate help. “I only mean that it just so happened the body was found while you were renovating the house. At no time during the years between your uncle’s death and the settlement of the lawsuit was the body discovered. If anything, I would assume your deceased uncle would be on the hook for whatever came of that person. Whoever they were.”

  “You would think, right? But the house is mine and it has been for seven years, and the police find it hard to believe that never once in those seven years did I go into the attic. But I didn’t, I swear. Even if I had, I would have needed to find that exact trunk in which the body had been locked.”

  “Did the workmen open the trunk?” I asked.

  Joe shot me a warning look, and I knew it all too well. He wanted me to keep my mouth shut. He had another think coming if he thought I was going to sit there with my hands folded like a good little girl while the grown-ups spoke.

  Nate shook his head. “When they lifted it, the bottom fell out. The thing was ancient, had probably sat there for a hundred years. Whoever chose it chose very wisely. Maybe they never expected it to be moved. I couldn’t tell you.”

  Raina looked a little green. “I mean, I’m no forensic expert or anything, but wouldn’t the body… You know, ooze or something?” Her lips pulled back in a grimace, and I was pretty sure mine did, too. I felt all creepy crawly just thinking about it. Like I needed a hot shower—which, in fact, I did.

  It was Joe who broke the uncomfortable silence. “Not if the body didn’t decompose in the trunk.”

  “What do you know?” I asked Joe, elbowing him in the side. “Are you holding out on us?”

  He rubbed his ribs even though I didn’t elbow him all that hard. “I’ll remind you, Emma, this isn’t your case.”

  “It’s not yours, either,” I reminded him. Immature? Maybe. But that know-it-all tone of his got under my skin.

  He blew out an exasperated sigh. “I am a detective. I heard about the case. That still gives me more reason than it gives you to know the details. And I’m under no obligation to share anything with you. That being said, I spoke with the police department today. I inquired as to what they’d found since yesterday afternoon.”

  “And?” Nate asked, leaning so far forward I was surprised he didn’t tip the chair over.

  “And, it looks as though the body had been moved. It didn’t decompose in the trunk. Somebody placed it there well after the fact.”

  Chapter Eleven

  I practically had to pick my jaw up off the floor. “You knew that, and you didn’t say anything until now?” I asked in a tight whisper. He had infuriated me before, but this was little a whole other level.

  “You didn’t ask,” he replied with a shrug. “And once again, Emma, this isn’t your case. I don’t owe you anything. And the police, I’m sure, would’ve told Mr. Patterson on their own time. As it is, the reports only came through early this morning.”

  “How can they tell something like that?” Raina asked, shivering a little and rubbing her arms.

  Was it my imagination, or did Joe look uncomfortable? Was it possible that something managed to work its way through his tough shell? “Well, there was no… That is, when they evaluated the inside of the trunk, there wasn’t any… Evidence of the sort of thing you described before.”

  I couldn’t imagine the sort of things Joe had seen over the course of his career. Dead bodies, all that stuff. Yet here he was, looking like he was struggling to hold back his lunch.

  Maybe he wasn’t entirely the tough guy he pretended to be. When I tried to catch his eye, he made it a point to avoid me.

  Nate, however, didn’t seem to be too surprised by this news. And it didn’t encourage them, either. “While I’m glad to know there was no body rotting away in the attic of what is now my house, I still fail to see how this in any way helps me. The police are going to drag their feet on this, I just know it.”

  “What makes you so sure?” Joe asked, sliding into his hardened cop voice. Yes, that was the Joe I knew.

  “That’s just how it is for us. My family. Don’t get me wrong, we’re very fortunate. At least, that’s what I’ve been told my entire life. And I realize I’ve been on the receiving end of more favors than I can count just because my last name happens to be Patterson, of the Maryland Pattersons.”

  Nate stood then, shaking his hands out, rolling his head on his shoulders. “Sorry, but I feel like I’m about to jump out of my skin. I barely slept last night. You’d think I would be dead on my feet, wandering around like a zombie. Instead, I can’t sit still.”

  “You’ve been through a lot,” Raina murmured, looking up at him. Her eyes were so soft, and for a second I thought there might have been tears in them.

  I couldn’t help but remember the boy she had described. The one at the party, the one she’d pretended to turn her ankle in front of so he would help her. />
  He’d been in the accident by then. He’d have killed that girl. No, he didn’t mean to, but he had done it. He’d basically gotten away with it, too. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit conflicted as I watched him fidget while Raina gazed up at him and adoration.

  People were allowed to make mistakes. I had made plenty myself. I was suffering the results of one of them at that very minute. In fact, my body stiffened with every moment I spent on that silk-covered couch.

  I told myself this, reminded myself again and again. People messed up. They did stupid, careless things. That didn’t make them bad, or capable of evil doings.

  “The police don’t seem to like you very much,” Joe pointed out. The king of discretion, this guy.

  I gaped at him in shock, nudging him with my knee. What did he think he was doing?

  He ignored me in favor of staring at Nate. “Why is that? Do they have a thing against your family?”

  Nate stopped dead in the center of the room, going completely still. “What makes you say that?”

  “Other than the fact that a few of them rolled their eyes when they spoke your name during my visit to the police station?” Joe countered with a soft chuckle. “Don’t get me wrong. I understand. A lot of police in a small town where everybody knows everybody find it difficult to muster much sympathy for the wealthy. It seems they live with their own set of rules, and no cop likes to see somebody get away with something just because they happen to have been born wealthy.”

  “I guess they told you about the accident.”

  I could hardly believe he came out with it like that, so openly.

  The way Joe’s eyes went wide told me he hadn’t expected it, either. But he managed to recover quickly. “I heard word of it.”

  “Believe me when I tell you, I accept full responsibility for what happened, just as I did then.” Nate jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, where he tightened them into fists which stood out against the denim. “That Detective Wallace. I remember him from back then, and he remembered me.”