The One Who Watches

by Emerald O'Brien

  I knew. I knew. I never should have tried.

  Thirty-One

  Mac’s squad car pulled up along the curb ahead of Conroy’s squad car with Charles Gaines waiting in the back seat. Mac came to a full stop and jumped right out, meeting Grace’s gaze. They met at the end of Gaines’ driveway, and as he stepped close, she tensed up, watching to make sure no one noticed the irregular treatment.

  Instead of touching her, he faced the opposite direction and leaned in close enough to whisper, “You okay?”

  “Yes, honestly.”

  “You scared me. You’re good?”

  She nodded, and he nodded, stepping away without looking at each other again and approaching the front door as her cell phone rang. “Sheppard.”

  “You can go ahead,” Banning said. “As soon as Sergeant Colette gets there.”

  “What?”

  “He wants to be there for this. It’s his region. Fair’s fair.”

  “Fine.”

  “Listen, this is your case, but as soon as they find something on him, they’ll be in on it too, and he’ll be theirs, so keep that in mind.”

  “Got it.”

  “I want you back here when it’s all said and done to debrief.”

  “Yes, sir.” She ended the call as another car pulled up and parked diagonally across the driveway.

  Sergeant Bruno Colette stepped out and scanned the area, his brows furrowing behind his aviator sunglasses as he caught sight of Grace.

  When we sat in the board room together in front of the disciplinary committee determining my fate, I bet he never imagined he’d be seeing me again, never mind run into me on an investigation in his territory.

  But this is my scene and he can’t run me off again.

  “Him?” Mac muttered.

  “Uh huh. This should be good.”

  “Sarge.” Conroy nodded to him, but the sergeant strode past him, up the walkway to the door.

  “Let’s go, boys!” Sarge shouted, and Conroy and another few approached.

  Grace stepped up beside him at the door, and Mac closed in behind her.

  “You can stay out here,” he said. “We’ve got this.”

  “This is currently my case,” she said. “I’m going in.”

  He took off his sunglasses and stared down his nose at her. “How about you stay outside? Don’t want you getting locked in again.”

  “Was that a threat?” she asked, holding a firm tone.

  He turned back to the door and opened it, gesturing for the officers to go in and clear the place.

  Grace and Mac entered next, swept the hallway, and Grace leaned into Mac. “I need you upstairs. Anything you can find.”

  They parted, and Conroy opened the basement door. She followed him down the stairs to rows of storage shelves in the cement and concrete basement. Different holiday décor stuck out of boxes, and rubber containers stacked upon more lined the walls.

  Conroy turned on the light and swept the room as Grace approached the only door in the basement. Conroy stepped ahead of her, opened it, and proceeded to sweep the room.

  “Clear,” he said, but his voice wavered as Grace flipped on the light switch.

  Newspaper articles and printed out sheets of photos had been taped to the walls, hung in layer upon layer surrounding a table in the middle of the room with a cell phone, laptop and coffee mug. She walked to the opposite side of the room and scanned the walls.

  Amherst college student jumps off roof to her death at Tall Pines College.

  Ruled suicide for college student Donelle Gaines.

  Music like you’ve never heard it before. An app by Tyler Gibbons and Joel Wallace that has everyone talking—and singing.

  Carbon Monoxide poisoning suspected in Amherst man’s death. Edgar Cull, Thirty-two, found dead in his garage…

  One sheet stood out among the rest, a white paper with black writing in marker.

  Tyler Gibbons: School bag. Nail Polish. Class books.

  A check mark sat beside the list and all the words, along with his name, had been crossed out.

  Edgar Cull: Bracelet. Lipstick. Scrunchie.

  A check mark sat beside his list, with everything crossed out like Tyler’s.

  Raven Lockwood: Teddy Bear. Bracelet. Rose.

  A check mark sat beside her list, but it remained uncrossed.

  Raven. Raven was the M.E. on the case.

  “Mac!” she hollered. “I need you down here!”

  Conroy rushed out of the room and marched up the stairs.

  No doubt telling Sarge what we found.

  Not much time before he’s in here too.

  Below Raven’s name was one more.

  Daniel Newcomb: Shoes. Purse. Photo.

  No checkmark or lines through his.

  Mac entered the room with Sarge not far behind. He scanned the walls, and Mac checked the other side.

  “Evidence!” Sarge called. “This is all evidence. Everybody out!”

  Grace turned to Mac and tilted her head to the door.

  “You too!” Sarge said to her.

  “As a detective in this investigation, I’m trained in crime scenes, as you know, and this is my case.”

  “My jurisdiction,” Sarge said, still scanning the walls.

  He doesn’t even know what half of this means, but it won’t take him long to find out. I need to question Charles while we still have him.

  “Fine, I’ll wait outside.” She left, and Mac followed her up the stairs and to the front door. “Anything up there?”

  “Nothing I could see. Their bedrooms and the washroom. No obvious evidence.”

  “I need the swab from Gaines, and I need to ask him about the wall.” She pushed out the door and Mac followed. “We have the warrant but not much time. They’ll take him on suspicion of Edgar’s death.”

  “What was all that?”

  “He planned it all. Tyler, Edgar, Raven. He was going to get to Raven next. Then the last one, the detective on his daughter’s case, Danny Newcomb. They all had a hand in his daughter’s death in his eyes.”

  “Raven?”

  “She was the M.E., and there were no findings of foul play or any other injuries that didn’t align with the suicide narrative.”

  She approached Conroy’s car, and the officer opened the door for her.

  “If you’d have let me explain.” Gaines shook his head, blinking up at her. “I didn’t do anything to those people.”

  “We found it all,” Grace said. “I’ve got a warrant for a DNA sample from you.”

  “For what?” He scowled. “I didn’t do anything!”

  “You lured Tyler Gibbons here. Fought with him. Tampered with the brakes on his vehicle—”

  “Whoa, hold on! I didn’t do that, the brakes, nope. Won’t go down for that!”

  “You admit you fought,” she said.

  “I just wanted to talk to him, just like you did with me. Give him a chance to come clean.”

  “Then what?”

  “He wouldn’t, so yeah, I hit him. That was it. Never did anything to his tires, or brakes, or whatever. Never saw him again. I never did anything to Edgar, either! I think they—neither of them could live with what they’d done. What they knew.”

  “What’s that?”

  “They killed her. Tyler killed her on purpose. The guard wasn’t doing his job properly that night. Guilt must have eaten at them both.”

  “You expect us to believe they both killed themselves? With all that in your basement?”

  “That was to push them a little closer to the truth. Once they realized they were all Donelle’s things, they wouldn’t be able to turn away from the part they played.”

  “And if they denied it, you killed them,” Mac said.

  “You were going to kill them all and make it look like an accident. Like what you thought happened to your daughter.”

  “No. That—what happened to them—that was karma, but it wasn’t my kind of justice. Don’t you think I’d wanna
lay my bare hands on them?”

  Sarge strode out the front door, and Conroy followed him toward them.

  Grace nodded to Mac, and he took out a swab kit. “Open your mouth.”

  “You expect me to believe it was coincidence? What happened to Tyler Gibbons in that crash on the day you saw him—fought with him—was just bad luck?”

  Gaines opened his mouth, and Mac swabbed it.

  “The guilt,” he spat as Mac took the swab out of his mouth. “It ate away at ‘em both!”

  “Take him in,” Sarge said to the officer beside them, and he closed the door on them.

  “I wasn’t finished,” Grace said.

  Mac placed the swab in a tube and into the kit.

  “You can book a time to come down and see him for questioning,” Sarge said. He nodded to Conroy and followed him to his car as the officer got in the front seat and pulled away with Charles Gaines.

  “Grace?” Mac asked, as another squad car took the place of the one with Gaines.

  “Yeah?”

  “Can you just do me one favor?”

  “What’s that?”

  He stepped in front of her. “Could you spend the night at my place?”

  “Yeah? I mean, I’m not really focused on that right now—”

  “You had me worried,” he said, “and I get Kenzie tomorrow, and you don’t have to stick around for that, but tonight, I just want to be with you.”

  She let his words sink in, focusing on his mouth as he spoke.

  “I want to know where you are and that you’re safe. You know you’re safe with me, right?”

  She wanted to be held right then, but instead, she grinned. “I know.”

  “We’ll meet back at the station, then?” he asked.

  She nodded, and the Amherst forensics unit entered Gaines’ home.

  It’s all being swept away from me and into the hands of Sergeant Bruno Colette.

  She ducked into her car, and Mac jogged to his.

  It doesn’t feel right. I need more information before I close the case. Another talk with Gaines.

  Maybe it will all line up with Tyler’s death.

  Maybe it’s really over.

  Thirty-Two

  Madigan trudged through the wet sand, following far behind Buster as he trotted in and out of the small waves rolling onto the shoreline.

  She pushed her hair, frizzy from the humidity of one of the first hot summer nights in Tall Pines, over her shoulder and turned toward the deep blue horizon.

  Am I that surprised? Of course she doesn’t want me. She’d have come for me if she did. Looked for me.

  I’m tough to love, even my adoptive mother admitted it, and Evette never said it outright, but I must have been, the way she neglected me. No mother figure has ever wanted me except maybe my grandma, but she died, and I’ll never really know how she felt about me.

  Her phone vibrated against her leg, and she took it out, sniffling away her tears.

  Grace.

  Well, good, cause I wouldn’t answer if it were anyone else right now.

  She cleared her throat and answered. “Hey.”

  “Hey, how are you? Oh, are you out for a walk by the coast?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah, I can hear it. I bet Buster is loving it. Listen, I don’t have a lot of time. I’ve just gotten back to Tall Pines and have to go to the department, but I had to tell you—those gifts Raven’s been receiving. We have evidence they were from a suspect in my car crash case.”

  What?

  “It’s a long story, and I’ll tell you next time I see you. I still have some things to do. Do you want to call Raven and let her know we have a suspect in custody? Tell her I’ll call her later tomorrow with the details?”

  “Sure.”

  Call Raven and tell her it’s all over, not due in any part to my help. Seems about right.

  “Hey, are you okay? You sound…down.”

  “I followed that lead you gave me today. I found her.”

  “Your birth mom? How did it go?”

  “Pretty much as I expected. She has a husband and young daughter; they all look happy, and when I confronted her, she denied having a daughter. Her husband called her Jules, and from her eyes, the way she looked—laughed—I know it was her.” The words caught in her throat, and she took the phone away from her ear to choke back more tears.

  “…sorry, Mad,” she heard as she pressed it to her ear to hear her over the waves.

  “I knew it was a possibility. A probability.”

  “But you still wanted to know.”

  “Yeah. I did. I guess at least I know now, instead of wondering. I know she’s in Amherst with a family, happy, seemed healthy. I don’t know if that’s better than the not knowing.”

  “It might not feel like it right now, but give it time.”

  “Yeah.” The word came out as a cry.

  “Mad? Are you by our spot?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m coming. I’ll meet you there.”

  “No.” She sniffled again. “You’re busy. I’m okay.”

  “You’re going to be, but you can’t talk me out of it. I’m almost there anyway.”

  “Fine.”

  She hung up, and Buster raced back to her, jumping on her legs, rubbing sand on her jeans.

  “Why not, right? Who cares about a little sand at this point?”

  Buster panted, staring up at her as she climbed onto the rock and dangled her legs off the side.

  “Go on, go play.”

  He bounded back toward the water, leaving little prints in the sand.

  Better do something productive in the meantime while I wait.

  She tapped on her screen and again on Raven’s name.

  “Hey,” Raven said.

  “Hey, I have some news. Grace just called and said the person leaving you those things wasn’t Paul Rothman. It was a suspect in her car crash case.”

  “Tyler Gibbons?”

  “I guess. I don’t know much about it except the man is in custody right now. She said she’d call you with the details tomorrow but wanted me to let you know.”

  “Wow, that’s great news.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And, hey, thank you so much for all you’ve done. I’ve got a check for you when I see you tonight. You’re still coming, right?”

  Cuddling with Buster sounds better, but I can’t let myself hole up and miss a chance to make a real friend. Some drinks sound great about now, anyway.

  “Yep. Roy’s after eight.”

  “Perfect. I’m going to have a power nap before then, now that I can actually sleep.”

  That makes one of us.

  “Good. Okay. See you then.”

  “Looking forward to it.”

  Grace walked over the rocks behind her, coming into her peripheral view. “Hey,” she called.

  “Hey. You really didn’t have to come all this way.”

  “It was on the way.” Grace tucked her hair behind her ear. “And you know I’m here for you no matter what.”

  She nodded as Grace leaned against the rock and Madigan’s legs, staring out at the ocean with her.

  “Maybe I expected too much,” she muttered.

  Grace grabbed her leg. “You deserve so much more than that.”

  Her chest heaved, working to keep the automatic reaction to her sister’s kindness at bay.

  “You might not want to hear this right now, but I want you to consider her perspective. Imagine she came out of nowhere and found you while you were with me or the Holdens. That you weren’t expecting her and had worked hard to build a normal life, but then she came when you least expected it. I’m not saying you’d have the same reaction she did, but I’m saying it must have been overwhelming for her today.”

  I don’t want to hear her side.

  “I’m saying, you can’t replay that one moment over in your head—and I know you are—but it doesn’t reflect how she really feels. You caught her off guard, an
d most people don’t react well in those situations.”

  “Mhmmm.”

  “I know, you don’t want to hear it. I’m just saying, the way she reacted was mostly about her and hardly at all about you, so stop beating yourself up over it as soon as possible, okay?”

  She nodded and wiped her cheeks.

  “Can we walk and talk? I need to get going soon, but walk me back to my car?”

  “Sure.” Madigan hopped off the rock and turned to the left, toward Grace’s house and the stairs leading to the footpath to the coastline.

  “I came the other way.” Grace pointed to the opening in the trees behind them to the left. It was the same long path they walked as little girls, running away from Evette at the fair, finding their rock at the end of it.

  “Buster!” Madigan called to him.

  He ran toward them and led the way into the forest, down the path toward the fairground.

  Twigs snapped beneath their feet as they took the long path back to the fairground parking lot.

  “If you need me tonight, I can come stay with you.” Grace bent down mid-stride to pet Buster as he trotted between them.

  “No, it’s okay. I actually have plans to go out for drinks with Raven and Melanie.”

  “Really? That sounds nice. I’m surprised you’re up for it, though.”

  “Raven’s so nice, and I think we could potentially be friends. I don’t have many of those.”

  “She is nice. I consider her a friend now too.”

  “You should come, then.”

  “Actually, Mac asked me to stay at his place.”

  “Ooooo.”

  “Yeah, yeah. It’ll be the first time.”

  Big step and I’m actually excited to see where he lives and spend time there.

  “Nervous?”

  “Not about that. It’ll be nice to see his place. He also wants me to meet his daughter at some point, and it sounds like soon.”

  “Tonight?”

  “No, she doesn’t come until tomorrow, but I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”

  “Well, we, of all people, know what it’s like to be a kid having people come in and out of our lives. I don’t blame you.”