Shattered Secrets

by Karen Harper - Cold Creek 01 - Shattered Secrets

  Tess crept out of the cornfield and strode through the tombstones. Some of them were small, but most were square or rectangular, nearly the size of those in a human cemetery. But wasn’t she picturing narrow, rounded stones? Embedded in these polished marble ones, pictures of dogs, and a few cats, caught her eye. She saw the little QR codes Marva had mentioned. If only there was some way to access stored images from her past.

  Many epitaphs were sad, some funny. She was amazed that people had money for these elaborate memorials when so many others—kids especially—were starving or homeless. She paused before heading out into the open again. After looking around carefully, then glancing out onto the road, she ran across the driveway and pressed her back to the house between two windows. She looked back at the graveyard.

  Vic was right, of course. It would have been much smaller twenty years ago, the stones not so elaborate or technology-enhanced. She did see a few toward the front, probably early ones, that were more modest. But she experienced no flood of thoughts, no buried fears unearthed. The cemetery triggered no memories.

  She decided to check the death dates on the smaller stones to be sure they would have been here twenty years ago. She darted away from the house and into a row of them just as she heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. Dane’s van turned into the driveway and parked in front of the vet clinic.

  Tess ducked behind a gravestone and huddled there, waiting for him to go inside. When he got out of the van, he was talking on the phone. She heard him say something about a meeting. He carried a satchel with him, probably a vet bag with medical supplies. To her surprise, he didn’t go into the clinic or his house but walked into the cemetery just a few rows from her.

  She crawled behind another stone and put her back to it, sitting on the ground with her knees up to her chest. Not talking, but with the phone still to his ear, he walked past the spot where he could glance down and see her. Tess scolded herself for wishing Gabe was with her. He said he’d be waiting when Dane returned ready to serve him with the warrant and search his house, so where was he? Not that she wanted him to find her here meddling in his plans.

  She wondered if Dane was heading for the cornfield. Could he be meeting someone there? Or what if he had something in his satchel to take through the field and leave in her yard? No, probably not in broad daylight.

  She wasn’t sure where he was. He could double back and see her. She debated making a run for the cornfield but it was a tall maze in there if she didn’t go in the direction toward home.

  She knew she should phone Gabe to tell him that Dane was here, but she was done working with Gabe.

  She heard Dane speaking again. He sounded upset, but he was far enough away that she couldn’t catch his words until he shouted, “No!”

  A single bang sounded. Tess jumped so hard she hit her head on the stone she was pressed against.

  Tess knew she shouldn’t have come here on her own. She wanted to get out of here. Let Gabe and Vic take over. Dane’s voice had stopped, so he must have ended the call, but that didn’t help her pinpoint where he was. She decided she was going to make a break for it.

  She got to her feet carefully and yanked the child’s backpack up on her shoulder. Bent over so her head didn’t show above the stones, she started toward the field, glancing at each cross row to be sure Dane didn’t see her.

  She’d made it to the last row of tombstones before the field when something caught her eye. Dane Thompson was sprawled on the ground with no one else in sight. Was it a trick to get her to come closer?

  She tiptoed two steps nearer. It looked as though he’d hit his head. She saw blood on the corner of a tombstone. Could that have caused the sound she’d heard?

  “Dr. Thompson, are you all right?” she asked from about ten feet away. When there was no response she crept closer.

  There was blood on the bottom corner of the stone, but as she looked carefully she saw it was spattered all over it, even in the grass!

  Horrified, she moved closer. A gun—some sort of old pistol—was in his outstretched hand. She didn’t see his cell phone, but a scarlet-speckled note lay on the slick grass. As she moved around the bloody stone, she saw blood on his neck and shoulders, and half his head was gone.

  21

  Tess’s hands shook so hard she could barely dial Gabe’s cell number. After she’d said she was on her own, she needed him. Now. He picked up on the first ring.

  “Tess? I tried to call you earlier. You home? Vic and I are almost to Dane’s place to serve him w—”

  “I came to look at the pet graveyard from his house. I’m here. He—he— I think he killed himself—in the tombstones by the cornfield. Gabe, there’s blood everywhere.”

  “Don’t move. We’re close.”

  As tears poured down her cheeks, she heard a siren. Thank God they were nearby.

  Although she’d declared her independence from Gabe, she did as he said and stood her ground, though she couldn’t bear to wait near Dane’s body. She’d disliked and feared him but had never wished for this.

  The siren came closer and stopped. Two doors slammed, bang, bang, but not as loud as the gunshot. Why didn’t she know it was a gunshot?

  Gabe’s distant voice called out. “Tess!”

  “Over here!”

  He and Vic came running but went straight to Dane. Vic bent over to look closely but neither man touched him.

  “One shot through the forehead,” Vic said. “Look at that old weapon. He collect them or something?”

  “I don’t know,” Gabe said, “but we’ve got the warrant to find out. Suicide? He must have thought we were going to arrest him this time. But who could have told him about the warrant?”

  “Stay here. I’ve got to check his house. Nobody move!” Vic said, then ran toward Dane’s house and kicked in the front door. He returned moments later. “No sign of any girls inside, but we need to do a thorough search of the property.”

  “I’ve called in help,” Gabe said. “See if you can read that note without touching it while I talk to Tess.”

  “Yeah, Tess,” Vic said. “She’s got some explaining to do.”

  Gabe approached Tess, who was frozen in shock. He put his arm around her waist and walked her a few tombstones away from the gruesome scene.

  “It was suicide, wasn’t it?” she asked them, her voice shaky, as she sat down on the edge of a tombstone.

  “Gun’s in his hand, but first impressions are never good enough,” Vic said. “Got to be sure. The angle of the wound looks unusual for a suicide.”

  Gabe stooped beside her, his elbows on his bent knees. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “You need to tell Marva,” she said.

  “I know. But I don’t want her to see him this way. I’ll notify her, but it should be in person. Tess, tell me everything you saw. Did he see you, confront you?”

  “No!” she insisted as he took out a small notepad and pen. “I looked at these tombstones from over by his house, trying to remember if I’d seen that view years ago, but nothing clicked. I saw him drive in, talking to someone on the phone when he got out of his van. He was carrying a satchel, like a medical bag.”

  “You sure?” Gabe asked. “There’s not one near him.”

  “There isn’t?” she said, craning her neck to look past him. Vic was still hovering near the body, but he stood and came closer. “Maybe he dropped it or hid it. But yes, I’m sure. That is, I thought that’s what it was, but maybe it was a case for his pistol. The only thing I could pick up from his distant voice was something about meeting someone.”

  “Now? Later?”

  “I don’t know. He shouted ‘No!’ right before I heard the shot, but I didn’t realize what the sound was at the time.”

  Gabe and Vic exchanged looks. They were both furiously making notes. Her stomach w
ent into freefall. Surely they didn’t think she had something to do with Dane’s death—that she came here to confront him.

  Gabe sat beside her on the edge of the tombstone. She wished she could hold Gabe’s hand, but when she reached out to him, he didn’t touch her. “Just keep calm,” he said. “We’ll have to test your hands—standard procedure. Go ahead. Anything else you remember?”

  She shook her head and blinked back tears she dared not brush away. “That’s all. Oh, after the shot, when I didn’t hear him anymore, I was going to sneak back into the cornfield to go home. That’s when I glanced down a row and saw him slumped. I went closer—blood, his head...” She gasped and started to hyperventilate. “But—about my hands,” she said, “I didn’t touch him, don’t have blood on them.”

  “We see that,” Gabe said. “It’s for gunpowder residue.”

  It was like a punch to the stomach. More standard procedure, but it scared her, until she realized her hands would be clean. But she couldn’t bear it if either of these men—especially Gabe—believed she could have killed Dane. Killed anyone.

  Vic broke the tense silence. “I managed to read the note without touching it.”

  “What did it say?” Gabe asked, looking up at Vic.

  “I got it exactly.” Vic flipped back a page in his notepad. “Sorry this is late. I know you won’t forget, but can you forgive? Dane. The bottom of the note’s trimmed off as if there was something else. Now, who could he be apologizing to?” Vic asked. “Was he hoping someone would forgive him, someone who came here to meet him?”

  Tess saw Gabe stiffen at that suggestion, but she wasn’t waiting for him to stand up for her. “Not me!” she insisted. “I was angry with Gabe for not telling me about our parents’ affair. I decided to come over here on my own, only to see if looking at this cemetery reminded me that I was kept here. Not to settle anything with Dane. I’d overheard Gabe say he wasn’t here, so that’s why I came.”

  “If he surprised you and you struggled with him and his gun, it would be self-defense,” Vic said.

  “Damn it, Vic!” Gabe exploded. “Don’t try to put words in her mouth!”

  “Sure, fine, but you both need someone who isn’t emotionally caught up in this—and each other.”

  Tess jolted at that. Was it so obvious?

  “And,” Vic plunged on, “Tess took off from her meeting with me—and evidently you too, Gabe—angry and upset.”

  “At you two, not at Dane!” Tess countered.

  Gabe stood, then helped Tess up, keeping his hand on her elbow. “Mike’s got a lot of work to do here. But if he says Tess’s hands are clean, we have her statement and she can go home.”

  “For now,” Vic agreed. “I gotta admit, ‘Kidnapper Kills Self in Remorse’ sounds like a good headline for the papers. But the placement of that head wound tells me someone else shot that gun.”

  Tess cleared her throat. “Write this down, both of you. If someone shot him, it wasn’t me. He did yell ‘No!’ and probably not at himself.”

  Vic finally nodded, instead of frowning at her. “I didn’t see any sign of his phone,” he said, his voice not so strident. “Unless it’s under the body or in his pocket. Tess, you mind if we take a look at what’s in your backpack?”

  “Be my guest,” she said. She turned so she could shrug out of it without touching it. Vic looked through it, shook his head but didn’t give it back.

  “Maybe he called to say goodbye to his sister,” Gabe said. “She tried to talk him out of it, he yelled ‘No!’ and bang. But you’re right about the bullet placement. Male suicides often ‘eat’ the gun, and if not, shoot the side of their head, not their forehead and at an upward angle. I saw some suicides when I was in Iraq.”

  Despite the fact that Tess was still angry, her heart went out to him again. “If there’s no phone and no sign of the satchel I swear I saw, maybe the meeting with the person on the phone was at the edge of the cornfield. When that person killed Dane, he or she took both items and ran into the field,” she said, almost whispering.

  “We’ll have it searched as well as this graveyard,” Gabe said. “So, who has the motive to point a pistol point-blank at a man’s forehead, stare him right in the eye and blow his skull apart? I say, not Tess Lockwood.”

  “Is his sister shorter than him?” Vic asked. “Tess was here—and if she suddenly remembered he was the kidnapper—she has motive.”

  “I said I didn’t and I don’t!” she shouted. “There are other suspects, and I wouldn’t do something to keep us from finding the other girls if he’s the one who had them stashed somewhere!”

  “Maybe Mike will get prints off the gun,” Gabe said. “But things like wine bottles and doorknobs have been wiped clean so far. As soon as we get this scene turned over to others, we’ll hit the house. We’ll have to ask Marva if he was talking to her and if she’s seen that antique pistol before.”

  “Okay,” Vic agreed. “After Mike checks Tess’s hands, let’s get her out of here until we get a formal deposition. The forensics posse will be here soon. I don’t figure you for a flight risk, Tess, but we need your word you won’t leave the area. Gabe and I have a lot to do, and I don’t want to be fighting him on insisting we hold you for further questioning right now.”

  Tess looked Vic straight in the eye. “As scared as I’ve been ever since I’ve been back here, I’m not leaving the area. I’m in this to find out what happened to me twenty years ago, who is trying to scare me away now and more important, to help find those girls.”

  “I admire your courage, Tess. I just always check every angle.” Vic turned toward Gabe. “After Mike dusts the weapon, I’m gonna take it and run it down—type, provenance.”

  Tess was amazed to realize that, despite Dane’s bloody body and the grilling she just experienced, she was feeling stronger.

  Vic tilted his head and craned his neck. “Two vehicles just drove in. Mike and your deputy. No, three. A silver car right behind them.”

  “That’s probably Marva,” Gabe said. “You brief Mike so he can check Tess’s hands, and I’ll talk to Marva, tell her she can’t go in now because of the warrant. It’s best she not see Dane.”

  “Gabe,” Tess said as he started to move away. “Maybe I can help you break it to Marva. She’s been good to me lately, friendly when I came back.”

  “Let’s see how she does first,” he said as he broke into a run. Vic went to brief Deputy Miller and Mike, who was toting a lot of gear. Tess leaned against the tombstone until Mike approached her. He explained that it was standard procedure to test her hands for residue—in case she’d picked up the gun. He produced what he called adhesive tabs and took samplings of her hands and wrists.

  “I’ll check these out in the van with my scanning electron microscope,” he told her. “But I’ve got to photograph and deal with the body first.”

  A scream pierced the air. “No! No! He wouldn’t!”

  Tess hurried down a row of tombstones toward the driveway. Gabe was talking to Marva, bracing her with both hands on her shoulders. “If he’s dead, someone killed him!” she screamed.

  Gabe’s low, steady voice sounded, followed by more shouting from Marva. “He wouldn’t do that, he had lots to live for! Yes, he bought a few old guns lately, Civil War ones, a couple older. No, I didn’t talk to him on the phone, haven’t since this morning, and he seemed fine.”

  Marva saw Tess over Gabe’s shoulder. Tess stepped forward, hoping to find words of comfort.

  “What’s she doing here?” Marva screeched, pointing at her. “Dane had nothing to do with her kidnapping, and this latest one’s made it worse! All he did was live across the field!”

  Startled, Tess stopped walking. Gabe kept his voice low as he spoke to Marva again, but she cried out, “I don’t believe her! She’s the one who put you up to this—new suspicions, a se
arch warrant. She came here to spy on or accuse Dane, and who knows she didn’t kill him?”

  * * *

  It was late afternoon and, exhausted and frustrated, Gabe and Vic sat silent in Gabe’s cruiser. They had searched Dane’s house. Mike had run the test to be sure Tess’s hands were clear of gunpowder residue before they’d let her go. They were still waiting for the body to be taken to the morgue for an autopsy. They planned to have volunteers search the entire cornfield for Dane’s satchel and phone, but nothing had turned up nearby.

  Mike had helped with the search of Dane’s property; Jace too, after he had run Tess home and the coroner had taken over the crime scene. Gabe had been tempted to send Tess to the police station for safekeeping, but he didn’t want her there alone with Ann. Marva’s reaction to her had been tense enough, although the woman wasn’t responsible for what she said right now. She’d been taken to a friend’s house, and Dr. Nelson had sedated her.

  And that, Gabe thought, was a good one, because they could probably have just taken a sedation drug from Dane’s cache of them hidden in his attic. They’d scoured it and the basement for forensics evidence of Sandy Kenton, coming up with nothing. But they had discovered two key things. They found a lot of drugs, including a few for humans like amnestics and hallucinogens, all neatly labeled. It would take Mike and the BCI lab days to do the tox tests on all of them, maybe match one of them to what was in Tess’s system when she drank the wine. They also found that Dane did have a small collection of antique American guns, two rifles and four pistols. When they’d shown the pistol in question to Marva, she hadn’t recognized it as Dane’s. But they could find no formal paperwork on it or on two of the other pistols, so it was impossible to know how many he’d had.

  Gabe glanced in the rearview mirror again. He had it angled so he could watch for the body bag to be placed on a gurney to be wheeled out of the cemetery to the E.R. vehicle. It was starting to rain, perfect weather for this tragedy. Usually he loved the rain because he’d missed it when he was in Iraq, but today it only depressed him more. A handy place to die, a cemetery, Gabe thought. Marva said Dane had wanted to be buried there so it did make sense he’d kill himself there.