Trix

by Kate Morris

  “Nice shoes, Evans,” he said. “Going for that sexy, badass cop kinda’ thing?”

  “No, damn it,” she cursed with a frown. “My boots are trashed from last night, and I couldn’t find my other gym shoe this morning.”

  He chuckled, “If you’d put things away where they belong, you’d probably be able to find things easier.”

  She backhanded his shoulder as the elevator door opened. He laughed again and followed her to Hailee’s room. Elizabeth was already there sitting next to the bed and holding her step-daughter’s hand.

  “Hey, Liz,” he said as she rose. His ex-wife immediately walked over and hugged him tightly.

  “I’ll never forget what you’ve done, Jack,” she whispered and kissed his cheek.

  “Thank Evans more than me. She figured it out.”

  “He’s lying,” Lorena said and walked to Hailee’s bedside.

  The girl was twirling the end of her hair in her fingers, touching it and looking at the bleached strands, care of Dr. Psychopath.

  “The FBI just left a few hours ago. They took her information, talked to her, took samples the doctors got from her last night. It’s all so…horrible, Jack,” his ex whispered.

  “That’s good, though, Liz. It’s all evidence. She’s being a very brave girl. I’m glad she’s got you to get her through this.”

  She nodded and looked over toward Hailee and Lorena.

  “How you holdin’ up?” Lorena asked and took a seat next to her bed.

  “I’ll leave you two alone for a minute with her,” Liz volunteered. “Want some coffee? I’m going down to get some.”

  “No, thanks,” Jack said, marveling that this was the first time she’d ever volunteered to get him something, even when they were married.

  She left, and Jack went over to stand behind his partner.

  Hailee sniffed hard, tears fell, and she leaned over and hugged Lorena. “Thank you.”

  She cried hard, and Jack looked away. Then he offered them privacy and walked to the big window to look out at the city. Her grief, the trauma, the terror that she must’ve lived every single day with Martin was so horrific he wasn’t sure how she’d ever recover.

  Finally, she pulled back, and Jack handed her a box of tissues. Her lovely face was covered in bruises that mirrored Lorena’s.

  “Hey, you listen to me,” Lorena said, rising and sitting on the bed right next to Hailee and taking her hand in her own. “Don’t let this define you.”

  Hailee’s large brown eyes jumped to Lorena’s.

  “I mean it. You have a whole life to live. I know they’re gonna get you talking to shrinks and therapists and all that. Listen to them. Take their advice. Stick with your step-mother. As step-monsters go,” she teased and got a smile, “yours doesn’t seem too bad. But don’t let this one thing that happened to you define you as a person. You’re so much more than this. You’ve got a whole, long life to live, Hailee Neumann. Bad shit happens to us. Nobody gets out of life without some battle scars. Everyone has terrible things happen to them. Everyone goes through horrible things in their lives. Just don’t let it become all that you are, ya’ hear?”

  She nodded and started crying again. Then she flung herself against Lorena and cried herself out. They left Hailee a few minutes later and found her boyfriend Solomon waiting to see her.

  “Thank you for finding her, Detectives,” he said and shook their hands.

  “You’re welcome,” Jack said with a firm nod.

  “Solomon,” Lorena said and touched his shoulder. “take a walk with me, please.”

  Jack wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she led the young man down the hall and into a waiting room. He followed, but Lorena shook her head and closed the door. She had the room to herself, being the middle of the afternoon when most hospital visitors were either at work or running errands. The click-clicking of his ex-wife’s heels on the terrazzo flooring drew his attention.

  “I’m so glad you’re alone, Jack,” she said when she got close. “Can we talk for a minute, please?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Not in there. Lorena’s talking to Hailee’s boyfriend and wanted privacy.”

  “Oh, of course,” she said and walked down the hall with him.

  When they came to a quiet corner near a storage closet, Liz turned to him. Her blue eyes were bloodshot as if she hadn’t slept much and spent a lot of those waking hours crying. She wasn’t wearing makeup, either, which was highly unusual for her. It was the way she used to look when they first got married, just naturally pretty and fresh.

  “Jack, I wanted to talk. I’ve tried to talk to you many times since you came out here, but everything has been so crazy.”

  “You mean with your step-daughter being kidnapped by a psychotic serial killer?” he joked.

  “Right,” she said with a sad little nod.

  “What do you want to say?”

  “I think I made a mistake, Jack,” she stated.

  “What do you mean?” he asked with confusion.

  She looked at her feet and then back up at him, “I…I never should’ve done what I did to us. I never should’ve asked for a divorce. I never should’ve cheated on you. I’m so sorry.”

  He took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. He offered a nod. It was all he could do. She’d never apologized to him for wrecking their marriage. For years, he’d hated her for it. Then it had turned to a dull numbness of no feeling at all towards her.

  “Jack, I’m still in love with you,” she said quietly.

  “What?” he asked in a broken whisper.

  “I’m sorry. I know this is a lot, but I realized it the second I saw you again. I don’t think I ever loved Victor, not like you.”

  Jack closed his eyes a moment and wondered when he opened them again if she was still going to be there. She was. And she was looking at him with hope.

  “Liz, I don’t… I don’t know what to say,” he answered and frowned. “It’s just…it’s just that I don’t…”

  “Do you still love me?”

  “Oh, Liz, don’t. Please don’t ask me that. I don’t want to hurt you. When you ended it…I don’t know how to explain it. I shut off my feelings for you. It was over for me.”

  “Do you think you could ever love me again? The way you used to? We could move to Boulder together, raise the kids…”

  “I don’t think so, Liz,” he answered bluntly because he didn’t want to lead her on with false hope.

  She nodded slowly and bit her lower lip. “I understand.”

  He grasped her shoulders and said, “I’m sorry. I know you’re going through a lot. I do care about you. I always will, but I don’t feel like that about you anymore.”

  “Because of her?”

  “What? Because of who?”

  “Your partner, Jack?” she said as if he should know what she meant. “It’s pretty obvious.”

  “No, you’ve got this all wrong, Liz,” he said, shaking his head vigorously. “She’s my partner. You know how I feel about stuff like that.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said and offered an understanding smile. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. I know what it means because you used to look at me the same way.”

  He frowned and looked down.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “You deserve to be happy, Jack. You’re a good man.”

  She leaned toward him and hugged Jack for a long time. Then she pressed a soft kiss to his mouth before walking away.

  “You’re gonna be alright, Liz,” he called after her.

  She turned and said with tears in her eyes, “I know. My kids and I are going to be just fine. Goodbye, Jack Foster.”

  She nodded, swiped away tears and turned again. He watched her walk away, knowing it was the last time he’d do so. Then he went to find Lorena, who was standing outside the waiting room. Solomon was nowhere to be seen.

  “Ready, partner?” he asked, hoping the emotions he just tried to fight down when talking to Liz were not visible on
his face.

  “More than, thank you very much,” she said with honesty.

  They left the hospital and went home to his houseboat to pack. Jack would be glad to leave Portland. This time he hoped it was for good. He had roots in Cleveland, family, and other potentials, as well.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Lorena

  In the middle of their evening flight, Lorena received a text from Solomon telling her that he was thankful for the talk they had and that he was moving to Colorado with Hailee and Liz. She knew they’d work it out. She’d only talked to him about Hailee and what she’d been through. She explained to Solomon how traumatized she was and that it would take her years to overcome what she went through. If he truly loved her, they’d make it work out. She had no doubt they would. He’d told her that he still wanted Hailee to go to college and pursue her dreams and that he would do whatever it took to make that happen. He seemed like a good kid. She also gave him back the inappropriate pictures of Hailee and warned him not to take any more of those. He promised to destroy them. Then he’d hugged her.

  Then she got a call from Craig.

  “Hey, Evans,” he said. “I’m staying on for a while to tie up loose ends, but I wanted to tell you and Jack that we’ve got even more dirt on Martin.”

  She clicked it to speaker. “Go ahead.”

  “He attended the dental school at the University of Florida in Gainesville on a full scholarship and graduated at the top of his class. He was originally from a tiny town outside of Louisville, Kentucky, which is where his father murdered his mother. And we’ve got video surveillance of him from that one strip club…what was the name of it…the one with cameras…”

  “The Wet and Wild,” Lorena reminded him.

  “Right, wish I had your memory,” he said. “Guess the dude was a regular there. He always went in with a ball cap and sunglasses, but we’ve got him on footage nine times.”

  “Great,” Lorena said.

  “We’ve also got his computer. Lots of orders for matronly women’s dresses, hair dye, and the old-fashioned shoes.”

  “Even better,” she said.

  “He’s never getting off on any of this. He also left a partial footprint at the one scene, the phone he used to text you is in our custody, a hair at two separate body locations, and we’ve had three prostitutes come forward that saw him picking up their friends in his car the night the individual girls went missing.”

  “That helps, too,” Lorena said.

  “Also, the commercial property he had was an old, abandoned warehouse. It was a jackpot for forensics. There were cages in sound-proof rooms where he kept women. Surveillance cameras. And the biggest hit of all? He videotaped a lot of it. He even had footage of himself killing a few of them.”

  “His own snuff films,” Lorena remarked with disgust.

  “Yeah, this is all air-tight. There’s no way he’s not getting the death penalty outta’ this one. Oregon may not be a fan, but we’re sure that with the bodies in other states linked to him, that he’ll get prosecuted in one of those that does have the death penalty.”

  “Sounds good,” Jack said.

  They disconnected with Craig a minute later after he thanked them again for their help. Lorena was glad that Martin would never see anything but the inside of a jail cell for the rest of his life if he lived through his wounds.

  “Jack,” she said softly.

  “Yeah?” he asked, watching a live stream of a hockey game in Columbus, Ohio, something he threatened her often to drag her to. He was a big hockey fan, but she didn’t even know the rules of the game.

  “I always feel bad for their families, ya’ know?”

  He took a deep breath and sighed. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

  “He had kids. We saw his daughter. His wife and son…they’ll have to move. Maybe change their names. This will follow them everywhere.”

  “Yeah, but he had to be stopped, Evans. Think of all the families out there who are now missing their daughters.”

  She nodded with a scowl and bit her lip.

  Her phone buzzed, and Lorena received another text, this one from Grace. She was coming with Keagan to pick them up from the airport. Lorena sent her back a smiley emoji. Then Grace sent her a pic she must’ve found on the internet of a dog and an emoji face with hearts for eyes. She’d been asking a lot about getting a dog. She wanted a yellow Lab like Jack’s so that they could breed them. Lorena was one hundred percent against it. She didn’t have time for a dog. So, she sent her niece the emoji that teens loved that looked like feces. She received a return text of a selfie of her frowning. Lorena chuckled and texted her that she loved her and that she’d see her in three hours. They still had to catch a connecting flight in an hour in Chicago. Lorena was anxious to be home.

  She ordered a cranberry juice from the stewardess and some extra ice. The woman immediately glared at Jack.

  “Oh, no,” Lorena said quickly. “I’m a cop. He’s my partner. This isn’t a spousal abuse thing. I got into a…minor altercation with a suspect.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “That was stupid of me.”

  Jack was quick to say, “It’s okay. I would’ve thought the same thing.”

  “Did ya’ll hear about that serial killer they just caught in Portland?”

  “Something about it, yeah,” Jack said with a sly grin.

  “Sickening. What an awful man! And the Tooth Fairy? How creepy is that? I’m glad for the good police officers out there that put those jerks off the streets for good,” she said. “Let me get ya’ll a round of real drinks. Whatcha’ havin’?”

  “Just the cranberry juice for me, thanks,” Lorena said.

  “Instead of a sip from the can, can I have the whole can of Diet Coke?” Jack joked.

  “You got it, sugar,” she said and left with a wink.

  “Oh, gimme’ a break,” Lorena said and stashed her sunglasses from the top of her head back into her bag under the seat in front of her.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “You and your laying-on-the-charm-thick act,” she chided with good humor.

  “What? I wasn’t,” he said, appalled but still grinning.

  “Whatever, Foster,” she returned.

  The flight attendant brought their drinks, and Jack smiled again. The blonde with the globs of makeup offered a beaming white smile back at him. Lorena rolled her eyes.

  “It’ll be good to get home,” he said. “My dog’s probably missing me.”

  “If she’s smart she won’t be,” Lorena teased.

  “She’s not that smart,” Jack admitted. “I like ‘em dumb and pretty and blonde. Couldn’t you tell by the ex-wife?”

  Lorena burst out laughing. “Yeah, I kinda’ noticed. No, I’m just kidding. Sorry, Foster, she was…nice, I guess.”

  “Yeah, I think she was hoping for a reconciliation there at the end,” he told her.

  “Really? What’d you tell her?”

  “I told her that I couldn’t leave you to solve crimes without me. You’d be lost. That and you’d probably miss me and die of a broken heart.”

  Lorena snorted and sipped her juice, “Uh-huh. That’d happen.”

  “Aw, c’mon, Evans. Admit it. You like having me around,” he said and nudged her with his elbow.

  They were flying business class, so the seats were slightly larger and a lot more comfortable. The FBI spared no expense. The Director also tried to hire her and Jack, too. They both turned him down. Lorena took off her gym shoes and sat with her legs crossed Indian style. She was cold. She should’ve worn her hoodie. For some reason, she couldn’t give up her sister’s sweater just yet.

  “That’s only because I don’t know how to light the grill at my house.”

  “Well, that’s important,” he conceded with a nod. “You also don’t know how to cook, either.”

  “Speaking of, I wish they still served food on flights,” she lamented.

  “Good Lord, Evans,” he said. �
��I fed you before we took off.”

  “I know, but I don’t like flying, so I burned up that meal through anxiety.”

  “I don’t think that’s a thing,” he teased and sent her a sidelong glance.

  “I’m pretty sure it is since I’m starving.”

  He reached under the seat in front of him and retrieved his bag. Rummaging around, Jack dug out a package of cookies, Oreos.

  “Are you serious? You got us snacks? That’s awesome! On second thought, I think I will keep you around.”

  Jack chuckled and gave her a smirk. They reviewed the Trix case again to make sure they crossed all their t’s and dotted all their i’s. By the time they dropped into O’Hare airport, it was almost eleven o’clock at night. They rushed to their connecting flight and were told they could sit wherever they wanted because the flight wasn’t even half booked. She still sat right next to Jack. She hated flying. It wasn’t the idea of crashing to a fiery death at six hundred miles per hours, although that had its negatives, too. It was the lack of control she felt sitting passively as a passenger and leaving her life in someone else’s hands.

  They landed in Cleveland an hour later, and Jack nudged her awake. She’d fallen asleep on his arm.

  “Sorry,” she said and wiped under her eyes.

  “No problem,” he grinned. “See, Evans? I’m good for some things.”

  “Arm sleeping, Oreos, grill lighting, can’t think of anything else,” she teased and got the hair on the top of her head ruffled by him.

  They exited the plane quickly and went down the ramp.

  “Mom!” Gracie screamed and ran towards her.