A Grave End

by Wendy Roberts

  As I was paying for juice and a muffin, a hand on my shoulder caused me to jump. I turned to see the officer who’d shown up at Rachel Wu’s scene.

  “I’ve been wanting to call you. Do you have a second?” he asked.

  “Sure.”

  I took my food to a table and waited for him to grab a coffee and join me.

  “You talked to Rachel Wu’s folks.”

  “Yes.” I nodded. “I went to their house. They wanted to thank me for finding their daughter.”

  “And?” he asked.

  “Well, they were understandably distraught.”

  “Did they mention anything about drugs?”

  “They know she shouldn’t have been driving. Apparently she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. Why? She had drugs in her system?”

  “Yes. Heroin.”

  “Guess that explains why she drove off the road.”

  “Yeah.” He took a sip from his coffee.

  It felt like there was something he wasn’t saying so I just nibbled on my muffin and waited for him to speak.

  “Just seemed too tidy, you know?” He put his coffee cup down. “No skid marks so she didn’t brake on the turn before going down the embankment. A small packet of black tar laced with fentanyl sitting prettily on the passenger seat next to her.”

  “You’re saying the heroin with fentanyl is what killed her?”

  “Yeah. A lethal dose.”

  “So it was the drugs that killed her, not the car wreck?”

  He nodded. “Her mom and dad said she’d returned to school after getting clean. Too bad she couldn’t have stayed that way.”

  “Sometimes it’s not that easy,” I murmured. I wanted to tell him that addiction wasn’t that tidy. Wine was my personal kryptonite but there wasn’t a bottle of booze I wouldn’t reach for when I fell off the wagon.

  “Right. All it took is her to give in to temptation one last time.” He rubbed the back of his neck and frowned. “Anyway, thanks for leading us to her. Appreciate it.” He took another sip of his coffee. “Once a junkie always a junkie, I guess.”

  I really hoped not.

  He left the coffee shop, leaving me to wonder about Rachel Wu and feel bad that she’d left a promising life for a quick thrill from the needle. I understood her need, but it didn’t make it easier to swallow.

  My heart skipped a beat of joy when I got home and saw Garrett’s vehicle in the driveway, but I didn’t find him inside. Wookie was also gone so he’d taken the dog for a walk. As soon as he returned, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

  “I missed you too,” he said against my mouth as I took a breath between kisses. He held me at arm’s length then and looked me in the eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  “Why does something have to be wrong?” I ran a hand through my hair and forced a laugh. “I’ve just been to prison. It shook me up a bit that’s all.”

  “How were things at Ozette?”

  We took seats at the kitchen table while I told the story of Alice and Roscoe and their unorthodox attempt to have a child. Garrett listened carefully, his soft eyes taking in everything I said and everything I didn’t.

  “I doubt having a baby would’ve saved them.” Garrett shook his head. “Sounds like they already had issues.”

  “Yes. Babies change everything.”

  He briefly got that faraway look on his face. That sad, dreamy way his face got when he remembered back to when he had a wife and a child before they were torn from this planet by a drunk driver. Just as quickly, the gloomy look was gone and he was focused back on me.

  “This case is taking a toll on you.” He took my hand across the table. “You’re no closer to finding Alice than when you started.”

  “Not true. I’ve discovered dozens of places where she is not.”

  He laughed, gave my hand a squeeze, then lifted it to his lips to tenderly kiss the space where my ring would’ve been. A shameful reminder.

  “I’m starved,” he announced and got up to start dinner.

  He’d stopped at the grocery store on his way home and went to work browning ground beef for a pasta sauce while I chopped mushrooms and onions. I sank into the gentle domesticity of making a meal together.

  If Garrett had been away at work, I would’ve spent the evening researching maps of the areas Alice might be and reviewing notes I’d made about things people had told me. Instead, we curled up on the sofa and watched an old movie with his arm around my shoulders. There were a hundred things I wanted to say but the words couldn’t find their way from my head to my lips, so I sighed into his arms and enjoyed having my man home.

  The next morning I was woken with a kiss on the cheek. When my eyelids fluttered open, Garrett was standing beside the bed smiling. He was fully clothed and had his briefcase in his hands. “I have to get to work.”

  I sat up, picked up my cell phone and blinked at the time. Nearly ten. “Oh my God!”

  “Yeah, I didn’t have the heart to wake you.” He rubbed one of my shoulders. “You were tossing and turning in the night. I think you were having bad dreams.”

  A blurry vision crept into my mind.

  I stumbled out of the washroom, my face still damp from splashing water on it. The man was waiting for me. His face was a blur covered by his long hair and a fuzzy beard as he guided me back to our booth. I was trying so hard to sober up. I gave my head a hard shake, and the world tilted. I saw he was holding something in the palm of his hand.

  “The critters have both been fed,” Garrett continued, breaking into my memory. “I took Wookie for a good hard run so you can rest. Looks like you must need it.”

  “Thank you, baby.” I swung my legs out of bed, shaking away the dark images. “I can’t believe I slept that long.”

  “I hope you’re not coming down with something.”

  I got to my feet and he took me in his arms and kissed my neck.

  “No fever...” He kissed me on the cheek. “I’ll be back tomorrow night. Try not to overdo it while I’m gone.”

  I walked to the kitchen and watched his car back out of the driveway as I poured myself a glass of water. My mind began to drift back to Wayland and I shouted, “Stop!” to halt the flood of unfocused memories. Instead, I found something happier to think about. It was one of many techniques Dr. Chen taught me to help get rid of intrusive thoughts.

  I checked my phone and saw that Tracey had texted me. She had the day off and wanted to get together. I replied that I was going to visit Roscoe’s mother in a seniors’ home. Almost immediately she called.

  “I’ll come with you,” she said. “I’m great with old farts.”

  “Probably not so great if you call them that.” I laughed. “It’s in Bellingham. You sure you want to go all that way?”

  “I’ve got nothing else to do. Plus, you’ll be my captive audience while I fill you in on the saga of me and Ray.”

  “You two are a saga now?”

  “At the very least we’re a kind of X-rated miniseries.” She laughed and ended the call after telling me she’d be over in half an hour.

  By the time I’d dressed and double-checked I had everything in my backpack, Tracey was at my door. She came inside briefly to give Fluffy some cuddles and offer Wookie some scratches behind his ears and then we were climbing into my Jeep.

  “Okay, let’s get this over with.” I put the Jeep in reverse. “How did you and Ray go from having a romantic first date to being an X-rated miniseries?”

  “It’s called a booty call.”

  She said it with such a straight face that laughter exploded from my lips.

  “Who called who?”

  “Well, he called me and asked if I wanted to go out for a drink last night. I told him I wasn’t feeling like going out but he was more than welcome to come to my apartment. Next thing you
know...” A smile lit her face.

  “You hardly know each other.” I didn’t want to tamp down her delirious happiness so I quickly added, “I don’t mean that in a prudish way. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “You definitely do mean it in a prudish way,” Tracey said with a giggle. “Because even though we’re the same age, we both know that you’re an old woman in a young woman’s body. That’s okay though.” She reached over and patted my arm. “I know you worry about me. It’s not like we’re running off to get married. Right now I’m just having fun. And also having really good sex.”

  I laughed even harder, but then I stopped mid giggle. “There’s no one else around, so why does this guy have to ride my tail?”

  A blue van with tinted windows was following so close on I-5 that I couldn’t even catch his license plate number in my rearview mirror. I moved to the left lane and he followed. I accelerated and the van did also. Finally, I took an exit off I-5 and the van kept going.

  “What a jerk,” Tracey snarled. Then her phone chimed and she was giggling and texting.

  I pulled into a convenience store and bought a snack. When I returned to the vehicle, Tracey was still smiling at her phone and sending messages.

  “Still texting lover boy?”

  Tracey sighed dreamily when her phone again chimed an incoming text.

  “Yes, that’s Ray again.” She tapped away on her phone. “We might see each other again this evening,” she said as she tucked her phone into her purse. “He’s going to interview a few more people today up in Blaine.”

  “Okay.”

  “He said you weren’t thrilled about the website. Sorry about that. I should’ve let him explain it to you.”

  “I was just—” furious “—surprised, I guess. I’m not exactly into a partnership at this point, but...” I quickly added, “If I change my mind, he’d definitely be someone I’d consider teaming up with. I just don’t think we need to rush it. Let’s at least find Alice before we start declaring to the world what an excellent team we are.”

  “I can see your point,” Tracey said. “The way Ray talks about you, I can tell he’s in awe of your dowsing abilities. Guess he’s got some fanboy worshipping going on because he gets to work with the great Julie Hall.”

  “Ha!” I rolled my eyes at that.

  The location of the care home was a few blocks down the road from a large shopping mall. Cross-border shoppers looking for bargains created gridlock until we were past the mall area.

  I pulled into the parking lot of the care home. It was a modern gray stucco building tucked behind a sculpted cedar hedge.

  “What’s the plan?” Tracey asked.

  “We’re going to see Margaret Ebert. Roscoe’s mother. Apparently she was quite close with Alice but unfortunately she had a stroke and can’t talk.”

  “How are we going to get any information out of her if she can’t talk?”

  “I have no idea.”

  We walked into the building, and I told the front desk receptionist who we were wanting to see. We waited a few minutes until someone came to get us.

  “Margaret doesn’t get many visitors,” the young woman told us as she led us down a hallway. “Are you family?”

  “Friends of the family,” I replied, which was almost true.

  “Then you know her stroke left her unable to speak. She doesn’t have the ability to write either, but her mind is still pretty sharp.”

  The facility shone with the glow of bright artificial lighting and smelled sharply of floor cleaner and urine. Some of the residents were out shuffling around and others were slumped in chairs. We were brought into a semiprivate room and passed a woman curled on her side in her bed. Beyond the room divider we found Margaret Ebert sitting belted into a chair next to the window, staring up at a television.

  “Margaret, these nice women are here to visit,” the employee said.

  Margaret had short-cropped white hair, a sunken face, and wore flannel pajamas and a thick housecoat. One side of her face was slack and her right hand hung limply off the side of the chair. She looked away from the television to scrape her eyes over me and Tracey and then returned her gaze to the TV.

  “How about we get your teeth in?” The woman suggested. “You always feel better that way.”

  The worker disappeared into a washroom and returned with Margaret’s teeth. She installed them in Margaret’s mouth and pronounced her ready to receive company.

  The worker walked over to a counter and picked up a large board that had dozens of picture squares. One corner of the square had yes in large letters and the other corner had no. The rest of the squares were pictures of things like a bed, a plate of food, a drink, many pictures representing things like pain, family as well as emotions from tired, sad or lonely to angry, bored or happy.

  “Try to ask her questions she can answer with her board,” the worker told me. She pulled a small table in front of Margaret and placed the board on the table. Tracey and I took seats on either side of the old woman.

  “I’m Julie Hall,” I told her. “Kim told me that you and your deceased husband are the ones paying me to try and find Alice.”

  That got Margaret’s attention. She made a clacking sound with her dentures as she regarded me with sharp eyes. Her hand was a gnarled knot but it moved slowly and deliberately to tap the board in the corner that had the word yes.

  Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I thought.

  “I haven’t had much luck finding Alice’s body,” I told her.

  Margaret selected a box that had a picture of a teary face and the word sad under it.

  “Yes, it’s sad. I know you believe Roscoe is innocent, but honestly all I’m trying to do is find Alice. Hopefully if I can find her body, that will prove the identity of the killer.”

  Again, Margaret tapped the box that said yes.

  Tracey’s phone began ringing and she dug it out of her purse.

  “Just a sec, sweetie,” Tracey said into the phone and then she got to her feet and said to me, “I’ll wait for you in the entranceway, okay?”

  “Sure.”

  Margaret looked at Tracey and then at me and rolled her eyes and I smiled.

  “Yeah, she’s all about some guy right now.”

  Margaret tapped a box that had a laughing face that said funny.

  “She’s a riot,” I admitted. “Now about Alice...” I brought my chair in a little closer. “I understand you two were close.”

  Margaret’s knotted fist tapped yes then a box for family and then one for sad.

  “She came to visit you sometimes?”

  Margaret indicated yes and again sad.

  “Did you know about her trying to get pregnant?” I asked.

  Margaret clicked her dentures and hesitated before again pointing to yes and sad and then, lastly, one that said baby.

  “I understand from Roscoe that he was not able to get Alice pregnant and before they separated they’d decided to get her pregnant in a different kind of way.” I paused before adding, “With someone else.” I watched her face. “Roscoe said they told nobody, but I wonder if Alice might have shared that with you?”

  The lines between Margaret’s eyebrows deepened with worry and she began to rock back and forth as she clicked her dentures. Finally, she selected yes on the board and then mad followed by food.

  “I’m confused...”

  Margaret quickly pointed to the boxes for yes, mad and food again.

  Was she angry because she was hungry? I tried to refocus her attention with a yes or no question.

  “So Alice did tell you about sleeping with someone else to try and get pregnant?”

  Margaret chose yes.

  “Did she tell you who that was?”

  Margaret hit food food food and grunted with agitation.

 
“Okay, um, are you hungry? Do you want me to tell someone?”

  Margaret smacked the board hard at no but then pounded on food food food. She was getting more and more frantic.

  Maybe she was trying to send me a message.

  “The person who Alice was sleeping with to try and get pregnant, was it someone who worked at the diner? With food?”

  Margaret smacked the no on the board but then again hit food food food. Spittle flew from her mouth as she began making groaning noises and pounding her fist against the board. Obviously, the conversation was horribly traumatizing for her, and I felt devastated for making her so anxious.

  “Thank you for your time, Mrs. Ebert. I’m sorry to have upset you.”

  She all but growled then knocked the entire board to the floor. I hurriedly left the room and went in search of the worker who’d brought us to Margaret’s room. I found her down the hall.

  “I’m sorry, Margaret seems very agitated. Maybe visiting wasn’t such a good idea.”

  “Really? She’s usually so calm.” She frowned with worry.

  “She kept indicating food on her board,” I added. “Maybe she’s just hungry. I’m going to leave now.”

  “I’ll check on her.”

  As I walked back down the hall in the direction we’d come I hoped that Margaret wasn’t too upset by my Alice discussion. I rushed to the front foyer, where I found Tracey sitting on a corner bench scrolling through her phone. She looked up as I got close.

  “Any luck?”

  “Not much. She confirmed that she knew Alice was trying to get pregnant, but she just kind of lost it when I asked her if she knew who Alice was sleeping with. She got pretty agitated. I’m not sure but she kept hitting the food square on her communication board. Maybe I should check back at the diner. Who knows? Maybe she was with one of the cooks there or something. I know it sounds like a reach but I don’t know what else it could mean.” I frowned, thinking about poor Margaret’s distress. “Let’s go.”

  It was raining hard and Tracey and I jogged across the parking lot toward the Jeep. I had my head down until I pulled the key fob from my pocket. When I pointed it at the vehicle to unlock the doors, I looked up and stopped dead in my tracks.