by Mary Stone
“That’s the transplant team,” Nick said from behind them. Carrying a tray of paper coffee cups, he took one out and gave it to Ellie, then handed the whole tray to Jacob. “There’s one there for you. Can you take the other two to Wesley and Helen? There’s cream and sugar in the room.”
“Sure,” Jacob said before disappearing into her father’s room.
Nick pulled her into his arms and inhaled deeply. “I missed you. How are you holding up?”
“I’m good. Did they take Daddy back yet?”
“Not yet. That’s why the team is waiting in the hallway. They don’t want to get him too riled up before they take him.”
“I’m sure he’s already stressed out.”
Nick shook his head. “They gave him a little something to take the edge off. That’s why I’m glad I caught you, cause he’s a little loopy. Still your dad, but I wanted to make sure you were prepared.”
“Thank you. And thank you for sending Jacob.”
“I didn’t want you driving yourself, and your mom didn’t answer her phone. I found her passed out on the couch from exhaustion. She didn’t even lock the door.”
“I’m glad you went to get her.” She kissed him on the cheek then nuzzled against him for a second. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Come on, they’re going to take him soon. Let’s go see your dad.”
When they walked in, the scene was eerily calm. All of her brothers stood to the side of the room, trying to stay out of the way. Helen’s hair was a mess of flattened curls on one side, her makeup was smudged under her eyes. She hovered over her husband, who was so quiet, Ellie wondered if he was asleep.
Ellie untangled herself from Nick’s arms and went to her mother. “Mom.” It was one word, but it was all she had to say for her mom to turn and dissolve into her embrace. She held her mom close, silent tears flowing like rain from both of them.
Over her mother’s shoulder, she could see her father. He was smiling, but his gaze was distant and a little hazy.
“They gave him the good stuff,” Helen said, turning to smile at her husband. “It’s happening soon now.”
Ellie nodded and moved to the side of the bed.
Daniel took her hand and brought it to his lips. “My princess.” A loopy smile told her he wasn’t feeling a bit of anxiety. “You’ve never looked so strong.”
“I love you.” Her voice was raspy with the tears she was holding back for his sake.
“I love you more,” he countered. “Don’t let your mom get stressed out. She’s always worrying about shit.” Ellie stifled a laugh when the word slipped out of his mouth. Her father never swore. He caught her strangled expression and chuckled. “Life’s too short to be uptight, Ellie. Chase your dreams, and don’t worry about what society thinks you should do. You do what you want to do.” He jabbed her chest with his finger to drive home the point.
Ellie chuckled, not even wanting to know what her mother thought of his epiphany. “You’re going to be so embarrassed when you remember all this.”
Daniel winked at her. “Not a chance in hell, cupcake.”
There was a soft swish of fabric, and the blurry-eyed doctor who had seen them on Wednesday was at the bedside. “Hello, Ms. Kline,” she said with a warm smile before she addressed Daniel. “Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” He gave her a thumbs-up.
“Good, because it’s time,” she declared, stepping back so everyone could hug Daniel before he went to surgery.
Helen lingered for a moment, then moved back and let each of her children have a turn before she hugged him again. Jacob remained in the corner when Nick stepped forward to shake his hand.
“Get your ass over here,” Daniel said to Jacob.
Jacob did as he was told, leaning over the bed and hugging Daniel carefully. Ellie wasn’t standing close enough to make out what her father whispered in Jacob’s ear, but Jacob listened intently, then nodded before the doctor moved to Daniel’s bedside. The transplant team came in and whisked Daniel and his hospital bed toward surgery. They were gone in a matter of seconds, and the empty spot where her father had been filled Ellie’s heart with dread.
She looked at her watch. It was four thirty-six in the morning. Only thirty-six minutes had passed since Jacob had woken her up. Her whole world had changed in the space of a half hour.
He’s going to be fine, she told herself, looking to the doctor for reassurance.
“He won’t be out of surgery for at least nine hours,” the doctor said. “There’s nothing you can do here for now. After surgery, he will be intubated for at least twenty-four hours and visitation is strictly limited to decrease risk of infection. Mrs. Kline will be notified as the surgery and recovery progresses, but there’s no reason for you to wait here.”
Danny rested a hand on their mother’s shoulder. “We can stay in shifts if it will make you feel better.”
Blake stepped forward. “I’ll take the first shift.”
Helen looked at her sons, her face pinched with worry. “I could use some rest,” she said, looking down at herself. “Maybe a shower first.”
Ellie hugged her brothers and her mother, then took Nick’s hand as they all walked out together.
When they reached the parking lot, Danny took Helen to his car, Wesley and Blake following. Nick was still holding her hand when Blake walked back into the hospital, taking the first shift to wait for their father’s surgery updates.
Nick pulled her close and kissed her for the first time since she’d arrived at the hospital, and she realized he looked exhausted.
“Are you going to be all right?” she asked him.
“I’m fine. I just need some rest. Is it all right if Jacob takes you home? I don’t know if I can drive to your house.”
“Of course. Do you want us to drop you off at your house?”
“Not unless you’re staying,” he teased. “I’m right around the corner. I’ll be fine. I just need to know that you’re taken care of.”
“I’ve got her,” Jacob said. “You get some rest and let me know if you need me to bring a pizza by later.”
Nick shook Jacob’s hand, grinning. “They have this new fangled thing called delivery now. I dial a number and pizza appears like magic.”
“Funny.” Jacob laughed. “I’ll make sure she gets home safe.”
Nick hugged her one last time, then he jogged over to his car and sped away.
Jacob raised one eyebrow then shrugged. “I’m sure he can afford a ticket for speeding.”
“Let it go, Garcia.” Ellie gave him a teasing push.
When they got into the car, Duke was sitting up and looking around.
“Am I allowed to pet him?”
“Technically, when he’s at work, he’s not allowed human contact, and we are in his vehicle. But since it’s not work hours quite yet, I’ll cut him some slack.”
“And he won’t take my arm off?” She peered at Duke warily.
Jacob shrugged. “Take your chances.” He gave the command to relax, and Duke turned into a different dog. When Ellie reached her hand out for him to sniff, he immediately licked her clear to her elbow, panting in the way a dog did when he wanted attention and couldn’t wait. Jacob shook his head. “You’re going to ruin my partner.”
“It’s the least I can do.”
Behind the wheel, Jacob gave her a knowing look. “I don’t suppose you’re actually going home?”
She scratched the dog behind his ears, making his eyes roll back in his head. “Sitting at home would be just as bad as sitting at the hospital.”
“Where to?”
“Work sounds good.” She looked down at the sweats she’d pulled on in a hurry. “After I go home to change first.”
He snorted. “Work sounds good? Only to you.”
By the time early afternoon rolled around, Ellie was starting to regret her decision to work on so little sleep. Jillian had ordered pizza for a late lunch, and Ellie was s
itting at her desk eating, hoping it would revive her when Fortis walked in.
“Are you serious?” he boomed, hands on his hips. “I didn’t believe it when they told me, but here you are, plain as day.”
“I can’t sit at home and wait for the call.” She dropped her half eaten slice onto the paper plate. She looked at the clock. It was now officially nine hours and fifty-eight minutes since she’d left the hospital. Not that she was counting.
“Well, you can’t sit here and wait for it, either. Especially since you aren’t answering your cell.”
Her hand went to her pocket, and she patted around, then dug through her purse. She pulled her phone out, and sure enough, the battery was dead. She was even more tired than she thought. “Crap.”
“Don’t worry. Nick had enough sense to call the office. Your dad’s out of surgery. Everything went well.”
Ellie clapped her hand over her mouth and sagged in the chair, relief flooding through her. She couldn’t stop the tears that welled into her eyes.
“I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life, but you shouldn’t be here,” Fortis continued. “If you can’t stand to be home and you need to talk to someone, Dr. Powell is in today.”
“The department shrink?” She cringed, sitting back in the chair. “I’ll pass.”
“I’m not ordering you to talk to him, but it would probably help. Regardless, I can’t have you here. You should really take a few days off, but I know you better than that already. I’ll settle for you going home now and getting a jump on the weekend.”
“But—”
“I’m not taking no for an answer.” Fortis’s light-colored eyes pinned her to the desk chair. “Take the rest of the day off and come back on Monday, or I’ll give you a mandatory two weeks. Your choice.”
“All right, I’ll go home.”
“Let’s go.” Fortis jingled his keys in his pants pocket.
Ellie’s mouth dropped open. “I can catch a ride.”
“You don’t think I’m that stupid, do you?” he quipped. “It’s either me or Danver. Your choice.”
She shook her head and grabbed her things.
Jillian handed her the box of pizza and hugged her. “Call me if you need me.”
“Thanks,” Ellie murmured, suddenly exhausted.
Fortis drove her to her apartment, then parked the car and turned in his seat so he could look at her straight on. “Do you need me to help you carry your things up?”
“I’ve got it.”
He nodded. “I’m glad your father’s okay.”
“Me too.”
“If you don’t feel like coming in Monday, I’ll mark you down for vacation time.”
She raised her chin. “I’m coming to work.”
“I knew you’d say that.” He smiled, a hint of pride on his face. “I don’t have to follow you to your door to make sure you actually go in, do I?”
“No, sir.”
“Good. You get some rest, Kline. People need you, but you need to take care of yourself first.”
She nodded, quickly exiting the car and dragging herself through the door and into the elevator. Dropping her things on the kitchen table, she shoved the pizza box into the fridge. By the time she got to the bed, she was too tired to take off her shoes. She let out a long sigh as she collapsed onto the mattress. Whether she needed a vacation or not, she couldn’t take it. The spirits of the murdered women demanded justice, and Ellie was the only one listening.
She was asleep the second her head hit the pillow, but her dreams were plagued with images of the two dead women.
Tabitha and Mabel stood together in the dark, calling Ellie’s name.
24
Ellie’s hand was on the evidence room door when Jillian yanked it open, grabbed her elbow, and ushered her over to the desk.
“You’re never going to believe what I found.” Jillian typed quickly on her keyboard, then gestured at the screen with a triumphant grin on her face. “Steve Garret.”
“I’m not sure who that is,” Ellie said slowly as she took in the empty cups and plates scattered about the office. “Jillian, did you even go home this weekend?”
Jillian glanced at the papers in piles on her desk and shrugged. “There’s a chance I clocked in at like four this morning, but I couldn’t sleep.” She rolled her chair back and forth on the balls of her feet, grinning. On the corner of her desk, three to-go coffee cups rattled softly when the ventilation system kicked on.
“Jillian, how much coffee have you had?” Ellie asked, still holding a cup in each hand as she did every morning. “You’re positively buzzing.”
“Those three, plus my first trip to the breakroom. I’m not sure how many I drank before I dragged myself downstairs.”
“I can see that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so…” She searched for the right word. Hyper, bouncy, scattered. “On fire.”
“I’ve been thinking about this all weekend. I mean, the going to Ghana thing. How none of the other people in the group noticed the women were missing. That sort of thing.”
“It was a large group.”
“And they were all strangers.”
Ellie’s eyes widened, and she stepped closer to the computer screen. “All of them?”
Jillian used the mouse to open several tabs, lining them up until they fit side by side, filling the screen. “There were fifteen people on the trip, all around the same age, but from all over the East Coast. Except for Mabel and Tabitha, none of them knew each other before the trip.”
“That’s weird.” Ellie grabbed her notebook and wrote down the names and ages of everyone on the screen. “Usually, these groups work together and travel together.” She leaned forward and read the notes Jillian had taken. “None of them had any overlap?”
“None that I could find.”
She squinted at the only male in the photos. “And there’s only one man on the trip? That’s odd too.”
“That’s Steve Garret. Lives in Charleston. He’s the key to all this.”
She turned to Jillian, hoping in her caffeine buzz, she’d turned into a genius. “Why do you say that?”
“Look at his social media page during that time.” Jillian scrolled through Steve’s page. “See?”
“His pictures are all selfies, and the rest are candids of the women. They’re all working, but he seems to be documenting the entire thing and nothing else.” Ellie tapped her fingernail on the desk. “Notice anything?”
“I did. I haven’t seen Mabel or Tabitha in any of these pictures.”
“Not even in the group picture.” Ellie pointed at a name on the screen. “He’s tagged everyone on the trip, but what about this account? It’s not any of the women. Can we find out who this account is and why he would tag them?”
“A deleted account. I checked.”
“Of course,” Ellie scoffed. “Is this the only trip he’s done like this?”
“I wondered the same thing, so I looked it up. He did a few, but this was the last one.”
“Weird. Sounds like we should pay Mr. Garret a visit.”
“We?”
Ellie shrugged. “Fortis did say not to interview anyone alone again. He didn’t say I couldn’t take you.”
Jillian laughed, grabbing her purse. “Are you sure he didn’t?”
“My desk is here, and every detective needs a partner. It seems like it’s obvious that you’re it. If I’m wrong, I guess I’ll have to apologize for the misunderstanding.”
“I feel like you do that a lot.”
They stepped onto the elevator, and Ellie shot her a wry grin. “It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.”
Jillian jabbed at the button. “I’ll have to remember that one.” The door opened, revealing an empty hall with a straight shot to the side door that led to the parking lot. “Come on,” Jillian said. “Let’s go catch a bad guy.”
The single-story house had little more than a two-foot-wide strip of yard going around the entire thi
ng. Bent and rusted, the chain-link fence had seen better days, as had the rest of the neighborhood.
Ellie picked her way up the stairs and pushed the doorbell. When nothing happened, she knocked and stepped back, one hand resting lightly on her holster.
“Are you sure anyone lives here?” Jillian whispered. “It doesn’t look like it.”
“I hear someone moving around.” Ellie wrapped her knuckles on the rough wooden door. Several paint chips shook loose and fluttered to the porch. Ellie watched them land on a wide gap between the floorboards before they slipped in between and disappeared into the darkness.
“That’s not creepy at all,” Jillian muttered.
It took Steve Garret a full minute to answer the door. He looked disheveled, his short brown hair sticking out every which way, his eyes hazy. He smacked his lips and swallowed, and when he finally spoke, his voice was gritty with sleep. “Can I help you ladies?”
Ellie flashed her badge. “I’m Detective Kline, and this is Reed. We need to talk to you if you have a minute.”
He blinked, looking over Ellie’s shoulder then back at her with his eyebrows furrowed. “They pay that well at Charleston PD? I’ve never seen a cop who drove an Audi before.”
“Look, we can do this here on the front steps, but I’m sure you don’t want your neighbors thinking you’re a snitch or something.” Ellie gestured with her head at the nearest house. “This doesn’t look like the kind of place where snitches last long, and they’ll have us made for cops in a hot minute.”
“Comin’ inside won’t change that.” He scratched his arms, then sniffed, still peering through the partially open door.
“Your neighbors know you sell?” Ellie asked.
Steve looked like a deer caught in headlights.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She pulled a crisp hundred-dollar bill out of her wallet. “Then we’re just two gals looking for a party.”
He eyed the money for a second, and his hand snaked out and grabbed it before he stepped back to let them in. “Most customers are in and out pretty quick.”
“Five minutes.”
“Fine.” He closed the door and locked it behind them, gesturing at a couple of large beanbag chairs stitched to resemble legless chairs. “Have a seat if you want.”