NightScream

by Morgan Hannah MacDonald

  “Meet you there in thirty.”

  “Great.” Cody scooped up the paperwork and shoved it into the file to take with him. He could almost taste that fat juicy burger. He shrugged into his suit jacket and left the quiet station.

  When he opened the door at Duke’s, all conversation ceased. He should have known. After all, it was a cop bar. Feds were not welcome. He ignored the crowd and found an empty table. He sat with his back against the wall so no one could sneak up on him.

  Before long, the noise level rose again. He opened the folder and skimmed through his notes. A few minutes passed before he got that prickly feeling on the back of his neck.

  Someone was watching him.

  He glanced around, but didn’t catch anyone’s eye. And in this crowd, they wouldn’t be shy about it. The animosity most cops felt toward feds was not a secret. He went back to his notes.

  Although Cody knew someone was standing at his table, he waited for them to address him.

  “Hey, you. I heard you were in town.”

  He glanced up and found Jane Wheaton standing over him. She was a girl he’d dated briefly back in the day. He jumped up, kissed her cheek, and gave her a big hug. “How are you, Jane? You’re looking good.”

  “Thanks.” She blushed and looked at her feet. “You too.”

  Sweet Jane. He only had fond memories of her.

  “Will you join me?” He pulled out a chair.

  She looked at him. “Just for a minute, I have groceries in the car.” She sat and scooted closer to the table.

  “I wouldn’t have pegged you as someone who frequented a cop bar.”

  She giggled. “Oh no. I’ve never been in here before. Actually, I drove past you on the street heading in the opposite direction. I turned the car around to say hello. But by the time I reached your jeep, you were going through the door. I’ve been sitting out there a few minutes deciding whether or not I should come in.” A bashful grin played at her lips.

  He smiled. “I’m glad you did.”

  Just then a seasoned waitress appeared. She looked to be in her late fifties or early sixties. The buttons on her blouse looked about to pop and take someone’s eye out. Her blonde hair was up and teased within an inch of its life. Heavy blue eye shadow rounded out the look. Her name tag read Babs.

  “What can I get you folks?”

  “I’ll have a Dos Equis. Jane?”

  “Oh, nothing for me. Thank you.” She fiddled with her hands in her lap.

  “Okay, just the beer for now.” Then he focused on Jane. “So tell me what you’ve been up to? I don’t think I’ve seen you in years.”

  “I’m a teacher.”

  “That’s great. You always wanted to teach. What grade?”

  “Third. I get them when their little minds are still developing. Before they become too engrossed in social media and cell phones.” She smiled.

  “You mean hit their teens.”

  “Exactly.” She chuckled.

  “Smart thinking. I heard you and Dwight Young got married.”

  “Dwight and I split up last year.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Did you two have any kids?”

  She looked at the table, then back at him with sad eyes.

  “No. Just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”

  “Well, you’ve got a new crop of kids every year and I bet they love you. You must be a fantastic teacher.”

  “I don’t know about that, but I do love the kids.”

  Jane was always a bit on the shy side. A beautiful girl that never seemed to realize it. As a stupid kid, Cody had broken up with Jane to date Delilah. It wasn’t until later he realized the biggest difference between the two.

  Jane never had a bad word to say about anyone, whereas Delilah had a mean streak. The waitress deposited a frothy mug in front of him and took off without a word.

  “What about you? I heard you joined the FBI.”

  “Yeah.” He took a drink of his beer.

  “How do you like it?” She appeared more relaxed now that the spotlight was on him.

  “It’s challenging, but I love it.”

  “I bet. What brought you to town?”

  “Just came up to spend a few days with family and decompress.”

  “I stopped at Murphy’s last night for a bite and everyone’s talking about the bodies found at Hunters Cove. The way Dale tells it, the scene was pretty horrific. The entire town was plying him with drinks to hear all the gruesome details.”

  “I bet ol’ Dale loved being a celebrity for a day.” He twisted the mug around in his hands on the table.

  “Yes, between the booze and the attention, he was practically glowing. I also heard you were taking over the case.” She lowered her voice. “Tom Gilchrest had a few choice words regarding that.”

  Cody glanced around before answering. No one seemed to be paying attention, but he kept his voice down just the same. “The locals always have a fear of the FBI coming in and taking over, but the truth of the matter is, I’m just helping out. The case is actually Jillian Reid’s.”

  “Really? Well good for her.”

  Cody looked up and saw Jilly coming their way. “And speak of the devil.” He stood and pulled a chair out for her.

  Jane turned her head and the moment she saw the other woman, she jumped up. “Jilly, it’s good to see you.”

  “Hi, Jane. You joining us?” Jilly seemed relieved at the prospect.

  “Oh, no.” She looked at her watch. “It’s late and I have school tomorrow. It was nice seeing you both.”

  “Are you sure? We promise not to talk shop until we finish eating,” Cody said.

  “Thanks, but I have groceries that need to get in the fridge,” Jane said, scooting her chair back in.

  “Maybe we can get together and catch up more another time.”

  Jane grinned. “I’d like that. Just give me a call, I’m in the book. Take care.” She waved before she headed for the door.

  “You too.” Cody reclaimed his seat.

  Jilly took the chair he offered. “I can’t leave you alone for a minute before the women are all over you.”

  “Huh?” Cody couldn’t tell if she was kidding or serious.

  She looked around the room. “Have you ordered yet?”

  “No, I was waiting for you.” He took a swig of beer.

  “Okay.” She found the waitress and waved. “Babs!”

  The woman, who was serving a drink behind the bar, nodded toward Jilly. The moment she’d finished with the customer, she wandered over.

  “Hey, Jilly, good to see ya. What’ll you have?”

  “Cheeseburger, medium rare, Swiss cheese, extra onion, and a Corona Lite.”

  The waitress pulled a pen from the rat’s nest on her head and scribbled the order on her pad. “And you, hon?”

  Surprised Jilly’s order mirrored his own, he said, “I’ll have the same.”

  The waitress pointed to his mug. “Refill?”

  “Please,” Cody answered.

  She nodded, and took off.

  Cody noticed Jilly watching the TV above the bar; a baseball game was on. “You into sports?”

  She turned back around and addressed him. “Depends.”

  “On what?”

  “Who’s playing.” Jilly fiddled with a paper napkin on the table.

  “Who’s your team?”

  “Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins.”

  “Boston girl, huh?”

  “Yup. Born and raised. We moved here when I was fourteen.”

  “Huh, I never knew.”

  Her brows rose. “Why would you? It’s not like we were close.”

  “No, but we weren’t strangers either. We were lab partners in chemistry one semester.” He finished his beer just as Babs appeared with a new one along with Jilly’s.

  “Yeah, and you made me do all the work,” she grumbled.

  Cody shook his head. “No, I didn’t.” Then he noticed her glare. “I did?”

&n
bsp; “Oh, please, don’t act like you don’t remember.”

  “I remember coming over to your house to work on a project.”

  “You came over, once, but you didn’t do shit.” She took a sip from her bottle.

  “Come on. I got a B that semester. I must have done something.”

  “You got a B because I did all the work. If I’d waited for you, I would have flunked.”

  Cody racked his brain and she was right. He only remembered going to her house the one time and sitting next to her in class. It was when he’d first moved to Big Bear and he was miserable. He missed his friends and family.

  He felt like he’d been abandoned. Like his parents didn’t love him anymore. He must have taken it out on those around him.

  “I guess I was a bit of a jerk, huh?”

  “Ya think?” Her lips thinned.

  “Sorry. No wonder you hate me.”

  Her brows creased. “I didn’t say I hated you. Hate is a very strong word.”

  “Okay, don’t like me very much. If it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t you. It was me.”

  “You did not just say that.” She smirked.

  “Ha!” He barked a laugh when he realized what he’d said. “What I meant to say was, it was a really hard time for me. I’d gotten into trouble at home and my parents were fed up so they kicked me out.”

  Babs showed up with napkins and utensils before she scooted off.

  “Your own parents kicked you out of the house? That’s harsh.” Jilly took another sip of beer.

  “It felt that way at the time. We’ve since made amends, but the truth is, I went through a pretty destructive stage in my life and my parents didn’t know what to do.

  “They had four other kids and all their energy was spent keeping me out of trouble. So my grandfather stepped in and offered to have me live up here.”

  “I was warned you were a delinquent.”

  Cody was surprised. “Who told you that?”

  “My mother. When she found out you were my lab partner, she said I was not to be alone with you and we could only meet at our house.”

  “Huh.” He looked down at the table.

  She covered his hand on the table. “I didn’t say that to offend you.”

  He shook his head. “No, she was right. I was bad news for a while there. I was angry and hurt. I guess a few people got caught in the cross-hairs. I’m sorry you were one of them.”

  “It’s okay, I guess. It was a long time ago.” She noticed her hand on his and quickly removed it.

  “Then why–”

  The waitress showed up with two platters and laid them on the table. “I’ll be back with the ketchup for your fries. Anything else I can bring you?”

  Jilly jumped right in. “Mayo and mustard, please.”

  The waitress looked at him and he pointed to Jilly. “What she said.”

  Babs was back in no time with the condiments and they began preparing their burgers. Jilly grabbed the mustard, so Cody snatched the ketchup. When they were done, they switched. Then he waited until she finished with the mayo before he slathered a blob on his bun.

  The only difference between the two sandwiches was that she cut hers in half. That was something he never understood about women. It was still the same height whether it was cut or not. Maybe it was because their hands were smaller.

  He took a big bite and moaned. Once he’d finished chewing. “Damn, now that’s what I’m talking about.”

  “So, to get back to our conversation. Are you telling me you’re not that bad boy anymore?”

  He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Now I didn’t say that.”

  She threw a fry at him. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

  But the smile stayed on her face.

  THIRTEEN

  It was after midnight when Cody pulled up in front of the cabin. While discussing the case with Jilly, he’d learned all the victims had been alive when tossed in the water. What a horrible way to die.

  Not that having every bone in your body smashed with a hammer or having your nails ripped out was a picnic. Of all the cases he’d worked to date, this one was definitely up there as far as abominating details.

  This UNSUB truly enjoyed inflicting pain.

  Cody had just reached the front door when he got that prickly feeling again. He turned around and surveyed the yard. The porch light’s beam reached just past the driveway. The trees surrounding the property left many shadows.

  Behind the cabin and across the street was the national forest. He walked down the steps slowly, scanning in all directions. His hand gripped the butt of his gun.

  He never liked the feeling of being out of control and that’s what was going on here. Someone was following him and he was going to find out who. He walked further out into the yard, yet there was no sound.

  No leaves crackling. No twigs snapping. Whoever it was, they were patient. Cody backed toward the house and up the stairs. Without turning completely he unlocked the door and slipped into the cabin.

  He left the porch light on, but shut off the inside lights, then snuck up to the window and peered out the side of the curtain. He watched the yard and waited. He could stay there all night if he had to. Suddenly he sensed someone behind him. In one swift move, he drew his gun and spun around.

  Jilly let herself in the house and went through her normal routine. She opened the coat closet and something flew at her. The impact shoved her backward and she screamed. She landed face-up on the hardwood floor and her body slid a couple of feet.

  The cat yowled, used her breasts as a springboard and scurried away.

  “What the hell, Cleo, you scared the bejesus out of me. It’s not my fault you got locked in the closet you stupid cat.”

  Jilly’s chest burned with pain. She lifted her shirt and surveyed the damage. She’d been clawed pretty good. Little droplets of blood rose on her skin.

  “Thanks a lot,” she mumbled.

  She picked herself up and unbuttoned her blouse right away. The last thing she wanted to do tonight was scrub out bloodstains. Her heart drummed double time. Her hand shook as she removed her gun.

  It was so bad that it took her two tries to type her code into the safe. After she hung up her jacket, she retired to her room. She shrugged out of her blouse and inspected it. A couple of red drops dotted the material.

  She sat down on the chair by the door and removed her boots. She stood and slipped out of her pants. In stocking feet, she padded down the hall to the laundry room. Selecting cold water, she began to fill the washer and added liquid detergent.

  After spraying the stains with spot remover and working it in, the shirt followed. She was about to drop in her pants when the heft alerted her she hadn’t removed her cell phone from the pocket.

  “Now that would have been just great.”

  She took the phone out and set it on the dryer before she tossed the pants on top of her blouse. Jilly waited until the washer undulated a couple of times before she stopped the machine to let her clothes soak.

  “She was too exhausted for a bath tonight, so she opted for a shower. She shut herself inside the bathroom and turned on the wall heater, then the shower itself to warm up.

  After stepping under the hot spray, she sighed. She tilted her head toward the nozzle, closed her eyes and let the water cascade over her face, hair and body. Her life had been stressful from the moment Cody arrived.

  She didn’t want to be attracted to him and fought it tooth and nail, but it was what it was. Obviously, she wasn’t the only one. The guy charmed the pants off every female within a hundred yard radius, she just had to make sure she kept a tight grip on her own.

  His apology tonight had caught her off guard. He made it harder and harder to dislike him. He truly was a dick in high school. She just assumed it was his giant ego.

  Women practically dropped at his feet. Then again, he had become the captain of the football team shortly after joining. So men obviously held him in high r
egard as well. It was damned annoying how he excelled at everything.

  At least that’s what she’d thought at the time. Yet the story he’d told tonight came as a big surprise and not just because of the hardships he’d endured. It was more the fact that he was sharing such a deeply personal tale with her.

  When he’d mentioned the hurt he’d experienced in regards to his parents kicking him out, the look in his eyes was haunting. She could only imagine how that felt.

  Her own upbringing was the complete opposite. She always knew she had her parents love and support. Then again, Jilly had been an overachiever. She got straight A’s, never partied and didn’t date until her senior year.

  She remembered the way Marge carried on around Cody. Jilly had never seen the woman blush, or heard her giggle; she didn’t know she had it in her. Marge was a serious, take-charge kind of woman. She ran that station like a drill sergeant. Even Bud had to admit she scared him.

  Jilly knew deep down she was out of her depth with this investigation. She didn’t have a clue how to track a serial killer. Her cases had been easy in comparison. The killer was usually someone the victim knew.

  The motives were simple; love, or money. But serial killers had no ties to their victims, for the most part they were complete strangers. The reason they killed was for some whacked out notion in their heads.

  You can’t make sense out of crazy. And why would anyone want to make a career out of trying? The type of person who chose such a career had to be strong. Cody was a complex man. He was like a turtle, hard exterior with a soft interior hidden deep.

  The combination intrigued Jilly.

  He probably had a history of breaking up with women before they had a chance to leave him. He hid inside that hard shell to keep from being hurt the way he was when his parents had abandoned him.

  Why else would he still be single?

  The guy had it all: looks, brains, humor, and a good career. The thought was heartbreaking. But not to the degree she’d risk her own heart. She couldn’t go through that pain again.

  She’d just have to continually remind herself of that fact whenever Cody Thomas was in the vicinity. Jilly shut off the shower and grabbed the towel hanging over the stall. As she dried her body, the image of Cody taking his clothes off at the lake flashed through her mind.