Stained dark brown in color, the place was a single story tall, a wraparound deck encasing it. A trio of windows was spaced along the front, a glass door standing in the center, a matching wood door closed behind it.
Raised up onto stilts, the base of it was a few feet above the forest floor, Davis walking directly up to the staircase leading to the deck before stopping. Twisting her head in either direction, she looked for any signs of life, seeing nothing.
No cars in the driveway, not a light on inside, not even the faint din of music in the still air.
Flicking her gaze toward the treetops, she couldn’t help but notice that even the birds had gone quiet, everything seeming to be intently staring down at her.
Something that seemed to happen quite frequently since she accepted the position.
The heels of her boots clanked against the wooden stairs as she ascended, the sound echoing through the quiet morning. In measured steps, she made her way to the landing before moving at a diagonal and peering in through the front windows.
On the other side, she saw nothing more than a basic furnished cabin setup, a sofa along one wall, an armchair and a flat screen television on the other.
Covering most of the floor was a plush rug, the space outfitted in shades of hunter green, gold, and burgundy.
The only thing missing seemed to be a pair of crisscrossed snowshoes on the wall or an elk head.
Fighting to tamp down the eye roll she was feeling, Davis walked back to the front door. Curling her hand into a fist, she raised it and pounded three times, letting the sound fall away before adding two more.
Stepping back, she kept her right hand on the heel of her gun, her focus darting to either side, watching, listening, for any sign of movement.
There was decidedly none.
Contemplating giving another go at the front door, Davis shrugged off the notion, returning her attention to the side. Moving slow, she peered once more through the front windows, still seeing nothing beyond the slanted sunlight filtering through, highlighting dust motes floating in the air.
“Peg Bannister strikes again,” she muttered, continuing her path onward, wrapping around the side of the house.
Whether the call was ever thought to be legit or another in an unending line of little pranks aimed her direction, Davis had no way of knowing. What she was certain of was after two years in the position, the time for such childish behavior was long past, as was her patience for it.
A few weeks prior, she had had an informal discussion with the sheriff about things. Based on the eye roll and offhanded comments he gave her in response, she wasn’t holding out much hope for help from him.
Which meant she would likely need to provide it for herself.
In a steady pace, Davis walked along the side of the cabin, the wall solid, not a single window or decorative piece to punctuate things.
Ahead, she could see the lake come into view, much of the forest between the two having been stripped away, leaving nothing but a dirt and stone expanse down to the water’s edge.
Years before, Davis had grown up in a place not dissimilar to the one she was now standing on. No more than fifty miles to the east, it was technically in North Carolina, the two mirror images of one another.
Lots of woods and lakes, a slower pace than the big cities a bit further in either direction.
The kind of place Davis had grown up loving, could not wait to get back to the moment her playing career was wrapped.
A feeling that had shifted abruptly once her father passed and she was called back to take care of the family home.
Circling around the rear corner, she made a right, coming out on the rear deck. There she found a trio of roughhewn benches arranged around a table of the same design, a gas grill hidden beneath a cover tucked up tight to the house.
Strewn throughout was a heavy collection of muddy pawprints, many looking to be fairly recent, not yet baked rock hard by the sun.
No doubt a result of the dog now standing beside her Bronco, Davis fought the urge to turn and throw a glare in that direction, knowing it would do no good.
Even more so that there was no way she could even pretend to be angry with a dog, especially one as oblivious as the Labrador.
Tracing her gaze over the serpentine path, she saw where the animal had stepped up onto the deck via the staircase along the back, had made a pass through everything in quick order. From there, the prints seemed to collect in a large mash, all clustered tight around the sliding glass door.
Right in front of a sight that caused Davis’s breath to catch in her chest, instantly validating the call from Bannister as she reached for her hip.
Chapter Six
A pair of bloody handprints were pressed into the glass of the rear door, one left whole, the other smeared, long streaks extended from each of the fingers. Like a perverse form of war paint on one of the ponies ridden by her ancestors, they drew Talula Davis’s attention up from the muddy paw prints, her heart pounding.
Snapping her gun off her hip, she extended her weapon to arm’s length, swinging her focus to either side, peering into the forest.
As best she could tell, the world was still, though with such thick pine trees and heavy shadows, it was impossible to be certain.
Making an effort to pull in each breath, she turned and pressed her back up against the rear of the house. Releasing the secondary grip on her weapon, she pawed for the radio on her waist, tugging it free and pulling it to her face.
“Davis to Dispatch, over.”
Releasing the lever on the side of the device for a moment, she waited through a burst of static before pulling it back to her face again.
“Tanner, you there dammit?!”
A moment later the same husky drawl she’d heard earlier came over the line, a hint of a chuckle in his tone.
“You’re supposed to end all transmissions over, remember? Over.”
Not in the mood for any shit, Davis clutched the radio so tight it made her fingers ache, the slotted plastic flush against her lips.
“I don’t give a damn what I’m supposed to say. You tell the Sheriff we really do have a body out here and I’m requesting immediate backup.”
Not bothering to add over to the end of the call, or to wait for a response, she dropped the radio to the ground, the clunky device landing heavy, bouncing across the floorboards. Returning her free hand to the base of her gun, she looked out to her left, peering into the forest for any sign of life, before rolling back to her right.
Protocol would say she should wait for backup. She should get Peg Bannister far away, wait for Sheriff Charbonneau and anybody else he could muster to show up. Together, they would breach.
Based on the smear of blood she saw painting the glass just a few feet away though, there was no way she was willing to risk waiting that long.
Keeping her shoulder tight against the outer wall, Davis inched forward. Moving slow, she went until she was just a foot from the door handle before leaning forward and pushing softly against the vertical metal latch.
On contact, it eased open a few inches, the sound of metal scraping finding her ears.
Sweat dripped down either side of her face, droplets hanging from the underside of her jaw, as she lowered herself to a knee. Nudging herself forward again just slightly, she extended forward and shoved the door open with one hard push, using the momentum to pivot on her knee so she was facing straight into the cabin.
Gripping the gun tight in both hands, she stayed on a knee, her opposite leg extended at an angle beside her, her body framed in the doorway as she looked inside.
Like most structures, the door opened into the kitchen, the floor made from polished wood. To the left of it was a table with matching benches, the design a copy of the one on the deck behind her.
Opposite it was an island with standing barstools, cabinets lining the wall behind it, everything made in a North Woods motif.
Right down to the heavy rug on the floor.
The one with a man lying face down atop it.
Feeling her heart pound through her temples, Davis pushed herself to a standing position. Moving in short stutter steps, she placed one boot over the threshold.
“This is the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department!” she called, her voice much stronger than she felt. “Is anybody inside?”
In short order, the sound of her voice echoed through the house before fading away, no response of any kind coming back.
Not even the creak of a floorboard, let alone a voice.
Venturing another step forward, Davis moved her head to either side, a continuous motion taking in everything around her.
In the air was the unmistakable scent of blood, so strong it brought bile up along the back of her throat.
Three steps were all it took for her to cross from the doorway to the rug, her footfalls going silent as she stepped onto the thick material.
“Hello?” she asked, alternating glances between the cabin and the man lying at her feet. “Are you okay?”
With her feet spread wide, she inched ever closer, the man giving no response. Closing the last bit of the gap between them, she hooked the toe of her boot under the man’s shoulder and pried him up a few inches, mortis having not yet set in, his form still sagging.
Again checking her surroundings, making sure she wasn’t standing in the middle of an elaborate trap, Davis drew her back leg up beneath her. Using it for leverage, she pushed her toes a bit further beneath the man before swinging her leg forward.
The white hair atop the man’s head had indicated he was older, though Davis hadn’t expected his stature to be quite so slight. Flipping over easily, the body rolled up and over his far shoulder, going from his stomach to his back in one smooth motion.
A motion Davis wished almost immediately she hadn’t bothered to perform.
With just a single look, the bile she had tasted a moment before rushed back in, nearly gagging her. A sheen of water passed over her eyes as she stared down, a chill running the length of her back, causing her entire form to shiver.
It wasn’t the first body she’d ever seen in the line of duty, but it was damned sure the worst.
“Jesus,” she whispered, staring down at the man, knowing in an instant there was no need to call for an ambulance. “Who are you and what did you do to deserve this?”
Part II
Chapter Seven
The stack of boxes landed with an audible clang of glass rattling against itself, the contents three cases of Oregon’s finest hard apple cider. A new product on the company ledger, the guys upstairs had a clear design for how they wanted to market and sell it to the public.
As for the distribution aspect, that was left entirely to me, the sole delivery man for the fledgling operation.
A position that as yet was still built more on unfulfilled promises than any amount of existing goodwill.
“Okay,” I said, shifting the stack into position before extracting the bottom lip of the dolly. “That should do it for you today, Mr. Yamashita.”
Tugging away the pair of canvas gloves I wore, I tucked them into my back pocket, draping a wrist over the top handle of the dolly.
“Oh, thank you,” he replied, a short, plump man with all the hair gone from the top of his head and cheeks so large they impeded on both his mouth and his eyes when he smiled. “The customers just love this stuff, can’t get enough.”
“That’s what we like to hear,” I said, thrusting a hand his direction. “See you again next week?”
Clasping my hand in both of his, Yamashita almost beamed. “Yes, yes. Same day and time, hopefully by then I’ll be needing even more.”
“Hopefully,” I replied, forcing myself to match the smile as I released the handshake and receded from the room. Keeping it on my face, I managed to hold the look all the way back to my delivery truck before letting it slide away.
In its wake, the glower that seemed to have become my resting position returned.
Not that it was especially hard to figure out why.
Turning on the ignition, I let cool air pipe in around me as I reached over onto the passenger seat and picked up a clipboard, a stack of dog-eared pages all fastened into position. Jerking them free, I shifted the one for Yamashita to the bottom, pulling up the next in order.
A no-name pizza joint in Southwest, just six blocks from where I was sitting, wanted one case of our newest apricot mead.
Hardly even worth the time it will take me to get there and unload it, a fact that does nothing for the look on my face.
Not that the guys in charge ever seem to give a damn, thinking that getting their product into even one more hand makes all the legwork worthwhile.
A stance that’s easy to have when they’re not the ones doing the legwork.
Easing away from the restaurant, I turned the radio to the only country station in Portland worth listening to, one buried deep on the a.m. dial that I had to search for months to even find. Seeming to be the sole station in the area that didn’t insist on playing the same six new releases from the frat boy country artist of the week, I adjusted the volume, hoping for something to lift my spirits.
After the day I’ve had, Lord knows I could use it.
Hooking a left out of the parking lot, I melded into the flow of traffic moving south, the midday crawl already starting to thicken up, which wasn’t a good sign for my commute home later on.
Over the speakers was nothing more than an ad urging me to buy new tires, the voice actors terrible, the pitch at the end even worse.
Which was to be expected, nothing quite lining up for me.
Per usual, it would seem.
Chapter Eight
My earlier speculation about the traffic had turned out to be a severe understatement, a thin afternoon rain doing what it so often tended to and turning most of my fellow drivers into overreactive zombies. A pair of roadside fender benders made most roadways impassable, the remainder moving with the kinds of spastic starts and stops of people acting as if they’ve never been behind the wheel of a car before.
Already getting out later than expected from the rash of extra deliveries added to my plate, dinner was reduced to something from a sack, the smells of salt and grease fighting for top billing in the interior of my sedan. Seen more as sustenance than anything I would actually like to be putting in my body, I ignored the scents as I wound my way through the outskirts of Hillsboro, a suburb on the western end of town.
Not a place I would have picked by any stretch of the imagination, though over time it has at least grown to the level of being comfortable.
Which is infinitely more than I can say for the SUV sitting in my front driveway.
“Jesus, already?” I muttered, my features crinkling into a scowl. Wanting nothing more than to drive right on past, to pretend I hadn’t seen it – or even better extend a middle finger and be on my way – I slowed and made the turn.
There was no way to avoid it.
Lord knew I had tried.
Maneuvering out wide around the SUV, I pulled into the driveway and climbed out, leaving my dinner on the passenger seat beside me, in no way wanting this to appear social.
On cue, my foot no more than touched the concrete beneath me before the driver’s side door of the SUV opened, a woman in a skirt suit with light brown hair exiting opposite me. Slamming her door shut with more force than necessary, she took a few steps before stopping, a hand on her hip as she stared across the hood of her car at me.
“That time of the month again already?” I opened.
“Yup,” Deputy Marshal Abby Lipski responded, “and you’re late.”
Staring at her for several moments, long enough to let her know that I didn’t appreciate her presence or the comment about my tardiness, I slowly drifted to the side.
“Work ran over.”
It was clear from the uniform I was wearing, from the dirt covering my exposed forearms and half my face, where I had been and what I’d been doi
ng. There was no need to belabor the point further.
Especially when she already had an intimate knowledge of where I was at any given moment.
“Should we get this over with?” she asked, turning to head for the door as well.
A handful of retorts sprang instantly to mind.
“We could just skip it altogether.”
Behind the mirrored sunglasses she wore, it was difficult to read her exact response, though the faint flicker at the corner of her lips indicated she probably wasn’t amused.
Not that I’d seen her smile once in six years.
Saying nothing in response, she followed as I stepped up onto the short deck carved out along the drive and through the backdoor into my apartment. Walking into the kitchen, I tossed my keys across the small round table in the corner, walking to the far side of the room and leaning against the counter running the length of the wall.
Pressing my backside against it, I balanced my hands on either side behind me, turning to stare at Lipski.
There was no need to offer her anything to drink, even less to go on into the living room and sit down. With any luck, she would be gone within five minutes, letting me get to my dinner and the rest of the shitty life they had put in place for me.
“So, how was work?” she asked, putting a tiny lilt in her voice. Whether she was being a sarcastic version of a doting housewife or just a smartass in general, I really didn’t care.
“Stimulating,” I said, matching the tone as best I could. “And your day?”
For the second time, the faint flicker of something flashed on her face before falling away. Reaching up, she repositioned the glasses from her face to the top of her head, and said, “Look, I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here. Protocol mandates that once a month we do a face-to-face check-in, so here we are.”
The Subway ; The Debt ; Catastrophic Page 3