Annabel fixed him with a disapproving glare. “I don’t want her thinking we’re slobs, Ilmarinen. And she’s a cleaner, not a maid. There’s a difference. Good domestics are like gold dust in this part of town. I don’t want anyone poaching her.”
Fortunately, he was saved from having to point out that their neighbors never spoke to them and no one cared what the house looked like except for her, when her expression changed to one of puzzlement and she gazed past him toward the TV screen.
“What on earth is Jake doing, standing in a cemetery in wellingtons at this time of the morning?” she wondered out loud.
Mari took in the blue-and-white tape and the small white forensic tent in surly silence. He already had a good idea why Jake was there. What he wanted to know was, why hadn’t he been told?
* * * *
“It was four in the morning when Cordiline called me,” Jake answered that question later in the afternoon when he came over. “I knew you’d been working late and I didn’t want to call and drag you out of bed at that hour.”
“You looked very striking up there in your boots and everything,” Anni chipped in from the breakfast bar where she was applying eye makeup in a standard mirror. “We recognized you right away.”
“Mama, hush,” Mari exhaled. “He’s a cop, not a Hollywood movie star.”
“Ex-cop… I quit,” Jake said. “And thank you, Anni.”
Mari examined the ceiling briefly.
“I’m sorry. Next time—if there is a next time—I will call and you can come, too,” Jake promised.
“Was the report right?” Mari asked more solemnly. “They said police found a body. Was she dead?”
“No, she’s not dead.” All trace of Jake’s good humor disappeared. “She’s in intensive care, though, and they aren’t sure if there will be brain damage. She was buried deeper than the others and they’re worried about the lack of oxygen she suffered.”
Mari chewed on his lips for a moment. “You were right. Sooner or later he’s going to kill someone. And all we have so far is a lot of pin-ups and a tangle of pins and string on your wall. How do you catch an invisible man?”
“It’s not all we have,” Jake said carefully and glanced at Anni. “This is confidential info, understood?”
“I wouldn’t tell anyone, even if there was someone to tell,” she confirmed.
Jake nodded. “This girl was a student at UCL, just like the last victim, Tamara Leyton-Skipp. Emily doesn’t go to school there but the Bun Shop is just across the street. We have a connection, I think. Natalie Craig isn’t a student, but the modeling you uncovered? She’s posed for classes at the university.”
“The killer could be you,” Mari teased him, though his gaze remained sober.
“A college employee or even another student?” Anni suggested, capping her mascara and popping it into her makeup bag.
“Yes. Faculty, staff, students… Could be any of them, or none.”
“Jake, that still doesn’t point us at anyone in particular,” Mari said.
“No, not yet. But it does tell us where he’s hunting.”
“The police are watching all the park areas in his patch but he still managed to do what he did last night. He’s aware of how to hide his tracks,” Mari mused. “Someone must know something about him.”
“Maybe. A sick fuck like this…” He stopped and glanced at Anni again. “Sorry.” She waved off his profanity easily, so he took a breath and went on. “It’s hard to say what his profile might be. He could be the angry loner type, hating women and wanting to punish them. Or he could just as easily be a Bundy or Gacy type. Seems perfectly normal socially, has friends, maybe even a family, and lives this sick double life. We have precious little information about him. He doesn’t leave anything behind on the victims, and what they all remember could fit on the head of a pin.”
“He isn’t making a statement, which means this isn’t about making a name for himself,” Anni suggested, looking from him to Mari and back again. “Not yet, anyway. The way he hides their bodies… Could be that he’s trying to keep something for himself? You know, the way a dog will bury a bone? A loner, maybe?”
“Victims, Anni, not bodies,” Jake said. His grim expression added an unspoken ‘not yet’ onto the end of that statement.
If she was offended by his comment, she didn’t let it show.
Mari changed the subject. “You look nice. Are you going out?”
“I have an appointment. Solana is coming over at half ten,” his mother replied.
“I’ll go for a run then,” he exhaled with a scowl.
“I’ll go with you,” Jake said. “I need to clear my head.”
“Good. You can give me the gory details.”
“I beg your pardon, children. I have worked in more war zones than you’ve had jobs. A bit of gruesomeness is not going to faze me,” Anni said tersely.
“Jake isn’t allowed to talk to members of the public about it. I’m his partner. I don’t count,” he reminded her. He blew her a kiss when she frowned at that.
Jake gave her an apologetic look as well and a sheepish shrug.
“You aren’t working for the Met, last I knew,” Anni said to Mari.
“Jake is, though, and he told his pet policeman that he wouldn’t help if I couldn’t be his glamorous assistant.” Mari tipped his head to look at Jake. “Isn’t that right?”
“That isn’t exactly how I put it, but close enough. Speaking of, I turned in the last of the required paperwork to the ABI. Since I’d already had my level three security training through the university, it’s just a matter of them finishing their background checks. I should have my PI registration cleared within a week or two.”
Mari sat up and faced him with a radiant grin. He planted a kiss on Jake’s mouth then murmered, “You are so smart and sly. You’re going to be a private detective. Am I seriously more excited about this than you are?”
“Congratulations, Jake,” Anni said with a warm smile. “Is this something you needed to work in an official capacity for the police?”
Jake hesitated just a moment before answering, “No, not exactly. I will continue working as a consultant for the police…but this is so I can open my own business.”
“How exciting.” She beamed at him. “I’m sure you’ll be very good. I hope my son isn’t going to get in your way too much.”
“I’m not five years old, Mama. I will provide Jake with technical assistance when he needs it. I do have a job already.” Mari sniffed and flopped down on the sofa but he turned his head to wink at Jake, unable to hide the delight in his eyes at the news.
“Exciting is one word for it,” Jake said. “It’s kinda daunting, too.”
“Any new enterprise can feel that way to start off with.” Annabel surveyed them both proudly then put her makeup bag away in one of the kitchen drawers. “Did you boys say something about going for a run?”
“Are you trying to get rid of us?” Mari pushed himself upright again, turning around to look at her with a thoughtful frown. “Are you sure it’s just a healing session you have booked? You look very glamorous.”
“Go and get changed,” she told him, refusing to rise to his baiting. “And take Tonka out with you. He needs a walk.”
“You are trying to get rid of us,” Mari declared with a note of triumph.
“Solana has been telling me that I need to think and behave like a woman who expects to live. And that includes making more of my appearance,” she responded primly, though she did hold out her hand to show them her nails, which were very neat and French manicured. “And I thought you didn’t like her. Surely you’d jump at the chance to not be here when she arrives?” She tried and failed to suppress a smirk.
Neither of them said anything for a heartbeat, then Jake moved to her side and put an arm around her, kissing her temple and letting her go again. “I agree with Solana on this, and you look lovely, Anni. Let’s go for that run,” he added, before Mari could pass further comme
nt.
“I’ll just throw some sweats on,” Mari said in a casual tone, which fooled neither of them. He never simply threw anything on when he was going out, for any reason. A good fifteen minutes elapsed between him going upstairs to get changed and coming down looking pristine in his snug black leggings with the green piping and an acid-green mesh vest that clung to his torso under the matching black and green hooded track top. The doorbell rang as he was pulling his running shoes on and Tonka set up a howl and went racing down the hall to meet the new challenge.
Annabel followed more sedately, and Mari and Jake shadowed her into the hallway as she caught Tonka’s collar and put his leash on before opening the front door. The burly Staffie stared up at their visitor with a tentative twitch of his tail and barked once. Mari smirked, but only for a moment as, to the surprise of all of them, the dog strained forward and snuffed at Solana’s maroon-colored pea coat then licked the hand she extended to him.
“I think he likes you,” Anni said, looking pleased. “That’s unusual.”
“I love dogs,” Solana told her in that rich, deep, musical voice. “I’m not allowed to have one, though. It contravenes the terms of my lease. Such a pity. Hello there, what’s your name, handsome?”
She bent, her long hair tumbling forward and screening her face as she made a fuss over Tonka. In turn, the dog wagged his whipcord tail furiously and yipped like a puppy.
Mari swore under his breath in Suomi and zipped his track top up so ferociously that he broke the pull tab.
Jake tried his best to keep a straight face and coughed to hide a laugh. Mari glared at him but Jake ignored it. He extended his hand when Solana finished rubbing Tonka’s ears. “You must be Solana. I’m Jake.”
Anni’s healer shook the proffered hand without hesitation and smiled at him with genuine warmth.
“Hello, Jake. You must be the boyfriend I’ve heard so much about. Well, Annabel, your boy has good taste, I’ll give him that.”
Anni handed Tonka’s leash to Mari. “Jake and Ilmari were just heading out to the park. Weren’t you?” she reminded them.
Mari managed not to pout or scowl. He nodded a curt acknowledgment of Solana’s presence and her offhanded compliment.
“We were just going. Don’t get herbs everywhere this time. Imogen only just vacuumed.”
“Have a nice jog,” Solana said. “Remember to stretch.”
Mari bristled, on the verge of turning, but Jake gripped his shoulder and nudged him out of the front door before things could escalate.
“Smug bitch!” Mari exhaled furiously once they were outside and beyond earshot. “If my mother wasn’t so taken with her, I’d show her how to fucking stretch!” Tonka looked at the house, whining, and he added, “Oh, don’t you start! Bad enough that I have Mama mooning over her.”
Jake took Tonka’s leash from him. “C’mon, mukwa. You can keep me company. I’ll take him for a walk while you run and meet up with you after, at the apartment, okay?”
Mari told Tonka to behave himself and headed off with a wave of his hand. He’d only got around the corner as far as Lancaster Gate when his mobile buzzed in the pocket of his hoodie and he tugged on the zip and swiped the screen to accept the call without looking.
“Hola, Marijne, I didn’t actually think you’d pick up,” Tomas said in Catalan.
Mari jolted to a standstill, his heart suddenly thumping in his throat as he contemplated just hanging up.
“What do you want?” he asked at last, forcing Tomas to speak English, which he was perfectly capable of.
“I wondered, if you’re not still desperately busy, if you had time to meet me for dinner? Professor Karden has recommended a very pleasant restaurant to me. I hate to dine alone. I’d be delighted if you could join me, Marijne. It’s been a long time since we spent any time together.”
Mari quivered with a combination of rage and silent incredulity at the barefaced smarm of that invitation.
“There is a perfectly good reason for that, Señor Arregui,” he said breathlessly. “As well you know. I don’t have any desire to meet you for dinner. And besides, I have a boyfriend, who has already made it clear that he’ll break your legs if you keep on sniffing around me.”
“I bet that idea gets you hot.” Mari could hear the smug note in Tomas’ voice. “You always did like a forceful mate. Perhaps I was not rough enough with you.”
Mari stared wide-eyed at his phone for a moment then stabbed the disconnect icon and switched it off. He pushed himself harder than usual on his run through the park and by the time he got to Maple Street, he was slick with sweat and breathing hard, but icy chills still chased up and down his spine.
Chapter Thirteen
Jake knew Mari was disappointed he didn’t offer to go change to run with him but he would make it up to him later. At the moment, he was curious about this Solana person and why Anni was so eager to be rid of them. Jake was not quite as quick to rush to a judgment about her as Mari, but he was not one to give his trust right away, either.
He took Tonka around the block and, about ten minutes later, let himself in the front door again. He didn’t try to sneak in at all. His intention wasn’t to startle them or—god forbid—catch them ‘doing anything’. He just wanted to make sure whatever it was they were getting up to was safe.
In the sunlit day room, Annabel was lying on the cushioned chaise facing toward the window and he almost ducked out of sight, into the hall, before realizing that her eyes were closed and she wouldn’t see him anyway. Solana walked around the lounger at a sedate pace and he could hear the soft thrumming of music, not new age stuff but something jangly, from the Eighties, he thought. The Elemental healer was talking to her as she walked and Anni’s lips twitched upward at the edges at something she said. Solana touched her patient’s pale hair as she passed around the head of the chaise. Her touch lingered there but the casual caress seemed chaste enough.
Jake watched for a moment more, but it felt too much like spying, and he unclipped Tonka’s lead and turned away to hang it on the peg by the door. He was just about to slip out when Solana’s voice, almost directly behind, stopped him. “You can come in and sit down if you like, Jake. I can work either way. Anni and I don’t mind if you stay.”
Jake held up his hands. “I didn’t mean to disturb you. Just bringing the little mukwa home. I’ll be on my way.”
Tonka trotted out and jumped up, putting his forepaws on Solana’s thighs and woofing a curious greeting.
“You have competition, Jake,” Anni said fondly.
“Don’t count on it helping to win Mari over.”
“Ilmarinen will come around,” Solana said with a confident smile. The healer moved to sit in Anni’s favorite armchair while she played with Tonka. “He just needs time to reconcile his mind. Once he realizes I am not here to challenge him, we will be fine. It’s good that he is dating another Elemental. That will help him.”
Jake narrowed his eyes. “He’s not worried about a challenge. He’s worried you’re a scam artist.”
That came out as blunt as he had intended but Solana just tossed her head with a hearty laugh.
“He should have no worries on that count,” she said once her humor abated. “I thought that, living openly as I do, he found me an affront to his masculinity.”
Jake frowned. “That’s not likely.”
She raised one perfect eyebrow. “You don’t think so? Interesting.”
Anni interrupted with, “Jake has been very good for Ilmarinen. He is a very polite and patient young man. I approve of him, wholeheartedly.”
Jake looked from Solana to Anni and back again. Anni was trying to be complimentary, he knew, but he heard the note of nervousness she was trying so hard not to show. Why would she want to reroute the conversation?
“Look… I don’t like games or cryptic comments. If you have something to say about Mari, spill it.”
“If he hasn’t told you…” Solana closed her mouth but, for the first time s
ince he had come back to the house, she looked uncomfortable.
Jake scowled. “Don’t start a sentence you’re not going to finish,” he warned, his patience starting to wear thin.
Annabel rose to her feet in silence as they faced off, but she crossed behind Jake to the busy, blond-pine shelves and cabinets on the wall across from the kitchen. On the bottom shelf were photo albums and she selected one. Opening it, she flipped a few pages until she found what she was looking for and handed it to him.
“This is what she means. It was the year Mari got his PhD,” she said, quietly. “We were all so proud. I told him that I would love him, no matter what he did.”
Jake blinked and refocused on the image before him. Anni he recognized right away, though she was tanned and her hair was shorter, worn in a bob like a halo of sunlight. She wore a trouser-suit that showed off more generous curves than she currently sported. The taller, older man on the right looked so like Mari in his features, he knew without asking that this was either his father or an uncle. Between them stood a statuesque blonde girl.
The mortar board and cape looked too dark on her. That was his first, confused thought. It made her features appear ghostly.
Long, fair hair was pulled back in a tail that hung from the crown of her head and spilled down one shoulder. The subtle eye makeup drew his attention to beautiful, ice-blue eyes and he saw the shadows of overwork beneath them, the strain in her expression as she put on a faux cheerful face for the camera. The fragile curve of her mouth was what gave it away. He had come to love that hopeful smile during the last year or so, and even with long feminine hair and makeup, he knew he was looking at Mari.
Jake hurt inside, like something was grabbing and twisting at his lungs, leaving him short of breath. Not for the reasons that Anni was anxiously dreading, given the look on her face, though.
The long gown under her cape was the same ice blue as her eyes. She looked like a Disney Princess on the verge of a nervous breakdown, elegant and beautiful, brittle and almost terrified. He ached to hold her and tell her…him…tell him that everything would eventually be all right.
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