The Body in the Wetlands

by Judi Lynn

  Worry slithered up her spine. What would Gutter Ed have done if he found Leo? She knocked again and thought she heard a low moan. Had he kicked Cocoa, then forced himself inside the house? She turned the doorknob, and the door opened. Crap. She pushed it wider and called, “Leo? Are you home?”

  She heard a faint voice. She stepped inside the house and followed the noise. “Leo? Louisa?”

  She found Louisa lying on the floor. She was conscious, dressed in pajamas and a robe, struggling to push herself up on her elbows. Jazzi rushed to her. “Are you all right?”

  “Leo never came home last night. I tried to call for help, but my phone was too high. I can stand, but when I stretched to reach it, I fell. I’ve been on the floor all night.”

  Jazzi pulled out her cell and called Ansel. “Louisa fell. Leo’s missing. I need help.”

  Then she reached under Louisa. “Is it safe to move you? Can I help you to your feet?”

  “I didn’t hurt anything. I just can’t get up.”

  “Ansel and Jerod will be here in a minute. It will be safer if they help me get you in your wheelchair.”

  Tears trickled down Louisa’s cheeks. “Leo and Cocoa went out for their evening walk and never came back. Before they left, Leo got me into my pajamas, then they waited until it was dusk, hoping no one would see them. Leo didn’t want to meet the angry man who came to yell at you.”

  Jazzi nodded, now sure that Leo was in trouble. “I have a friend who’s a detective. I’m calling him. Do you mind?”

  Louisa pinched her lips together, clearly frightened. “Leo always comes home. He’d never leave me here, alone.”

  “I know.” Relief rushed through her when all three men poured through the front door. She raised her eyebrows at Ansel. “No George?”

  “We left him at Thane’s house. He wasn’t happy about it, but we don’t have to worry about him there.”

  “Makes sense.” Jazzi called Gaff while Ansel and Jerod each slid an arm under one of Louisa’s shoulders and lifted her into her wheelchair. She looked pale and nauseous.

  “Can I get you something to eat? Drink?” Ansel asked. Her Viking made her proud.

  Jerod went into the kitchen and returned with a bottle of Ensure. Her cousin wasn’t half bad either.

  “Something’s happened to my Leo, or he’d be here. Cocoa didn’t come home last night either.”

  After Jazzi hung up the phone with Gaff, she explained how Cocoa had come to her. The dog had seen her outside, working in the yard, and had come to her for help.

  Thane went to fill the dog’s food and water bowls. Cocoa scarfed down the food and drank most of the water. Then she looked at Thane and whimpered. He scratched her behind her ears. “You’ve had a rough night, haven’t you?”

  Jazzi turned to Louisa. “Is there someone I can call for you? Someone who might help you now?”

  “Seth will be working at his bar, but Miriam will come.” She gave her Miriam’s number, and Jazzi called her friend and explained what had happened.

  “I’ll be there in less than an hour,” Miriam said. “Tell Louisa I’m coming.”

  Jazzi passed on the message and took a seat on the aged, plaid sofa near Louisa. She finally looked around the house. Leo wasn’t exaggerating when he said it was solid, but dated, just like the house Thane and Olivia had bought. Maybe somewhere along the way, even if they had enough money, people got tired of caring for their homes.

  “Do you need anything?” Jazzi asked Louisa.

  Tears fell in earnest now. “Only my Leo. Do you think he’s dead?”

  Oh, crap. That’s exactly what Jazzi thought, but she hoped against hope that she was wrong. Cocoa went to lay his head in Louisa’s lap, trying to comfort her. The dog whimpered while Louisa cried, and Jazzi felt so helpless, she wanted to scream.

  Chapter 11

  Detective Gaff was as good as his word and pulled into Louisa’s drive ten minutes later. Cocoa hid behind Jazzi’s legs when she opened the door for him to enter. The dog must be able to sense cop vibes, the intensity and authority. The man himself demanded attention with his salt-and-pepper hair, stocky build, and button-down shirt, but all three of her coworkers were big and strong, and Cocoa liked them. Could a dog sense that a cop could put people in jail?

  Gaff sat across from Louisa and took out his notepad and pen. He motioned for Jazzi to sit across from him. “Start from the beginning.”

  Ansel, Jerod, and Thane took seats on the perimeter of the room.

  Jazzi explained that she, Ansel, and Jerod were helping Thane and Olivia renovate their house. Leo and Louisa lived across the street from them. She filled in the rest, her explanation succinct, but thorough.

  Gaff asked, “Could Leo have hurt himself on his walk? Is there anyone who didn’t like him or Cocoa?”

  Jazzi explained about the man who’d confronted them yesterday. She filled in the background of Leo annoying him when he argued with his wife.

  Gaff looked at Ansel. “This Ed wouldn’t leave, even when you told him to?”

  Ansel shook his head. “He was revved up, and it didn’t seem like he’d had too much to drink or was high on anything. He was just plain mad.”

  Gaff turned his attention to Thane. “You know the neighborhoods. Do you know where this guy lives?”

  “We just moved in. I don’t know the area very well, but I’d recognize his van if it’s in his driveway. A working van, white like mine. He does gutters and siding.”

  Jazzi hadn’t realized how many white working vans clogged the streets of River Bluffs. Lots and lots of them.

  Gaff glanced at his watch. “He’s probably not home now, but I’ll have one of you ride with me later to look for it.”

  “I’d be happy to,” Thane said. “I don’t want that moron anywhere close to Olivia.”

  Cocoa walked to the door and whimpered so loudly that Jazzi went to her. The dog immediately tugged on the hem of Jazzi’s T-shirt, nudging at the door.

  “You want me to follow you, don’t you?” Jazzi reached for Cocoa’s leash and looked at the others. “Someone needs to stay with Louisa until Miriam gets here, but I feel sorry for this poor dog.” She patted Cocoa’s head. “Okay, girl, let’s go for a walk.”

  “Nope, not alone.” Ansel clicked the dog’s leash to Cocoa’s collar. “I’m going with you.”

  The dog tugged at the hem of Jazzi’s shirt again.

  Gaff frowned. “I’m coming too.”

  “So am I.” Jerod rose and glanced at Thane.

  Thane went to sit across from Louisa. “I’ll stay with her until her friend gets here.”

  The four of them set off with the Labrador. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day. Blue skies. Temperatures in the high seventies.

  The dog kept tugging at her leash. She wanted to get somewhere in a hurry.

  “We’re coming already,” Jazzi said. “Calm down.”

  Cocoa led them to the bottom of the circle of the small housing development. They passed several ranch houses—each a different color and style—until they came to the narrow patch of asphalt that led to another neighborhood. The dog trotted into that subdivision—made up of mostly Cape Cods—and circled half of it. A German shepherd threw itself against a chain-link fence and barked until they moved on. Two terriers barked at them three doors down. Cocoa never slowed down. She kept up a brisk pace until another asphalt road opened into a third neighborhood. Older houses lined its streets, many of them small. Cocoa veered to the left. The golf course was far in the distance, and she kept going until a dry, dusty path rambled away toward the wetlands. She took that.

  Brambles and weeds overgrew the narrow trail, but they followed the dog’s lead. The path dipped, and the ground grew damp and spongy. A garter snake slithered into the tall grasses. A cluster of trees huddled ahead of them, and Cocoa strained against her leash to sniff
there. She circled a spot and started to dig.

  Geese honked in the distance. A mallard duck flew overhead. Jazzi had read that a pair of young eagles had made a nest in the line of trees across the street.

  Damp dirt flew toward her. Jazzi stepped to the side, out of the way. The dog whined and dug faster.

  Traffic hummed on the nearby four-lane street. A heron flew overhead and landed nearby, in the water of the wetlands.

  Jazzi frowned. It looked like Cocoa had dug here before. The ground had been disturbed and tamped back down. She turned in a circle to survey the area. Had Leo come here with his dog and tripped and fallen? No one would see him if he was prone in the tall weeds and grasses. The dog yipped, and Jazzi turned to stare. She gasped.

  Gaff went to see what Cocoa had found. A dark T-shirt with a red slogan sprawled across the front was partially visible under a foot of dirt. He tugged Cocoa away from the shallow grave. “Good, girl. Good job. We’ll take it from here.”

  The dog sat on her haunches, panting. She looked proud of herself.

  Jazzi knelt to pet the dog, and Gaff opened his cell phone to call for a scene of crime team. While they waited, Ansel and Jerod came to stare at the dog’s find.

  “Leo doesn’t wear T-shirts,” Ansel said. “That’s not him.”

  “Then who is it?” Jerod asked.

  “How would I know?” Ansel glanced at Gaff. “Could it be the missing kid?”

  “That’s my guess.” Gaff shook his head. “My bet was on the dog leading us to Leo, not this.”

  Jazzi stood, the knees of her jeans damp from kneeling on the ground. She shielded her eyes from the sun and turned in a circle, searching for signs of a fallen person. It would be easy to trip over a fallen limb in dim light. She didn’t know why Leo had come here near sundown.

  Jerod started scanning the area, too, like Jazzi had done. If Leo had fallen, he was nowhere in the vicinity.

  Cocoa moved a few feet away and started digging again. A cold coil of worry twisted in Jazzi’s stomach. No, it couldn’t be another body. The dog was probably just hyper. If it made her happy to dig, why not let her? Please, don’t let it be Leo. Except once again, the dog yipped, and Jazzi stared at what looked like a flowered shirt with pockets. She recognized the style—scrubs—under a thin layer of dirt. Long, dark hair waved past slim shoulders.

  “You guys are gonna wanna see this.” It felt surreal. Cocoa had found everything but Leo.

  “Oh, crap.” Ansel came and looked down. “There’s another one,” he told Gaff.

  Jerod came to see. They all stared at the cheery-patterned fabric.

  “A girl?” Jerod asked.

  “Looks like a nurse to me.” Gaff glanced at the dog. “She doesn’t want to dig another hole, does she?”

  Lord, Jazzi hoped not. She frowned and tugged Cocoa a little way back. “Is Leo here?”

  The dog lowered her head to the ground to sniff again and started toward a sport complex’s asphalt drive a short distance in the opposite direction. Jazzi bit her bottom lip. “Ansel! Gaff and Jerod!” She pointed to weeds that had already been flattened, as if someone had dragged something heavy over them.

  Leo? Was his body thrown in the wild shrubs on the side of the drive? When Cocoa reached the asphalt, though, she lay down and whimpered. She turned to look at Jazzi with a low, sad whine.

  A dead end. What had happened to Leo? Had he crawled here to flag down someone for help? Jazzi noticed a piece of torn cotton fabric snagged on a shrub’s branch. Blue and yellow stripes. Just like the thin sweater Leo wore the last time she’d seen him. Then she saw the rust-colored smears on the pavement.

  “Crap.”

  Gaff glanced at Ansel, who nodded. “Leo was wearing a blue-and-yellow sweater the day he disappeared.”

  “Right after Ed, the gutter guy, tried to find him?”

  Jerod wasn’t buying it. “Who’d kill someone for leaving dog crap in his yard?”

  Jazzi had to agree with him. “Ed had a screw loose. Nobody gets that mad over stupid stuff. Plus, there are two dead bodies now. From what I’ve heard, Miles didn’t have a dog, just a bicycle. And he disappeared just like Leo did.”

  Gaff started to walk back to the shallow graves. “Let’s hope Forensics can tell us something. More’s going on here than we thought.”

  How could this happen to her twice? They were working on another house, and they’d stumbled onto more dead bodies. The only good news was that none of it involved Jazzi’s family.

  Cocoa hurried to hug her side. The dog quivered, she was so anxious. Jazzi reached down to pet her.

  “Don’t pet any fur with blood,” Gaff said. “That could be evidence.”

  Ugh. Jazzi patted the top of the dog’s head, avoiding the spot by her left ear where the killer had probably struck her. Poor Cocoa. Had she tried to defend Leo? Protect him? Jazzi thought about Louisa. She couldn’t take the Lab for two walks a day, not even one. What would happen to her? She looked at Ansel, and as if he was reading her thoughts, he nodded.

  “She’s a good dog. We won’t let her go to the pound.”

  Jazzi didn’t really want another dog, but if worse came to worse, they’d take Cocoa in. The dog deserved a good home.

  Chapter 12

  They were quiet as they turned to walk back to the shallow graves. Cocoa didn’t pull on her leash. She walked with her head down, as if she were in mourning.

  When they reached the cluster of trees where they’d found the bodies, the crime team was there, taking pictures and gathering evidence. They’d removed the dirt, exposing two young people. Miles—at least Jazzi assumed it must be Miles—wore tight jeans and a T-shirt. He had on one red sneaker. His wavy, brown hair was caked with dirt. A pair of black-rimmed glasses sat lopsided on his nose.

  “Did he have a wallet?” Gaff asked one of the techs.

  The guy held up a baggy with a wallet inside. “Miles Lancaster, lived close to here.”

  “And her?” Gaff asked.

  “Nothing. No purse, no ID.”

  Gaff looked disappointed. “That would have been too easy. Thanks, Ben.”

  With a nod, Ben went back to work. Gaff held up a hand, motioning for the three of them to stay a bit longer. He’d want to talk to them.

  Jazzi couldn’t help it. She studied the corpses. Part of her didn’t want to, but the rest of her wanted to know what they looked like, how they’d died. The dead girl had long, dark hair and a heart-shaped face. She must have been really pretty before bugs and decay had started to work on her. She wore scrubs and sensible, white work shoes. A nurse or hospital tech? Both sides of Jefferson Street, which wasn’t that far away, were lined with medical buildings until you reached the hospital, a little farther south.

  Both bodies had started to decompose in their shallow graves. One body wasn’t worse than the other.

  Jazzi grimaced. She’d assumed Miles had been killed because of his voyeur tendency. He’d probably seen the wrong thing at the wrong time. Had he seen the killer attack the girl?

  And what about Leo? He liked to rove the many pocket neighborhoods, “keeping an eye” on things. He’d left near sunset on his walk with Cocoa, anxious not to be seen. Had he set off in a different direction last night, trying to avoid Gutter Guy, and stumbled on the graves? Cocoa might have smelled them and led him to them, just as she’d led Jazzi to them today. Was Leo killed so he couldn’t expose them?

  Jazzi glanced at the dirt coating the dog’s left side and silently voted for that scenario. She could picture Cocoa leading Leo to the cluster of trees, digging and exposing Miles’s T-shirt, and then trying to protect Leo when someone came up behind him and bashed him on the head. Then had the killer bashed Cocoa, too, before dragging Leo off to load in the trunk of a car to take his body away? She thought about that. Could Leo’s murder have worked that way? It seemed possible to
her.

  “Your wheels are turning,” Ansel said, coming to wrap his arm around her waist. “I can watch them. You have that look. What have you come up with?”

  Gaff walked over to join them. “What do you think?”

  They tossed ideas back and forth as the four of them returned to the asphalt drive that circled the last neighborhood they’d visited. She bumped closer to Ansel, matching her stride with his. Jerod, walking behind them, turned to Gaff. “Jazzi’s take on this makes sense to me.”

  “It’s a good start. Maybe Miles saw the killer murder the pretty nurse. The killer realized he’d seen them and went after Miles.”

  Ansel dropped his arm from her and stepped onto the narrow asphalt strip that led to the next neighborhood’s street. “You said Miles had his wallet. What about a cell phone? Did he carry one? And the nurse hasn’t reported for work for a while now, right? Someone realizes she’s missing. If you find out who she is, you can start setting the dominoes in place, right?”

  Gaff loosened another button on his shirt and ran his finger under the collar. It wasn’t hot today, but the exertion was enough to make anyone sweat. The field was clotted with weeds, and it felt surreal to hear cars whizzing down the highway while they followed a narrow path through a no-man’s land. “Neither Miles nor the nurse had cell phones on them. We’re going to have to check missing persons and hope someone fits our nurse’s description.”

  Jerod gave his head a quick shake. “I wouldn’t want to be called in to identify either one of those bodies. They don’t look very good. That image would stay with you a long time.”

  “I thought they’d look worse,” Ansel said. “They’ve been missing for a few weeks, haven’t they? At least Miles has. That’s when his parents called about him, wasn’t it?”