by Debra Webb
Then she saw what didn’t belong.
Fingers… sticking up from the ground.
5:01 p.m.
Brock Clements was dead. It had taken only a few minutes for Harper and the lieutenant to uncover his body. His body had been too close to the surface to use shovels. Digging by hand, the detectives had worn out three pairs of gloves each.
The Jackson County coroner had arrived. Jess didn’t need a coroner or a forensic expert to tell her what happened. Clements had a gash on the back of his head that suggested he’d been temporarily disabled, and then buried in this shallow grave. Before he suffocated, he’d awakened but he’d been too far gone and disoriented to dig his way out from under the shallow blanket of dirt.
Jess had called Sheriff Foster so he could make the notification. She regretted this was the news Mrs. Clement would receive. The loss of a child, no matter the age, went against the nature of things. Mrs. Clements had been right to be worried about her son’s involvement with Amanda Brownfield.
Brownfield or her accomplice—not that Jess thought she had one—had done a stellar job of camouflaging the grave. She’d basically replanted some of the brush she dug up right on top of her boyfriend. The recent rain had prevented the leaves from wilting as quickly as they normally would have this time of year. All the shade from the trees had helped as well. The time the killer had spent doing the deed was also marked by the number of cigarette butts left behind.
Rather than watch the body removal, Jess went inside and considered the wall displaying all those photos and newspaper articles. She didn’t know how long she’d been inside before Lori came in search of her.
“You ready to call it a day?”
Jess turned to Lori. “Do you think she created this to remind her of some goal?”
Lori nodded. “I think so. Like buying a dress two sizes too small so you don’t forget why you’re struggling to lose a few pounds.”
Jess scanned the wall once more. “Doesn’t make sense she’d want to be me. She doesn’t even know me.” Jess stilled. “Unless it’s because Spears is paying attention to me. Maybe that’s the attraction.”
“He’s obsessed with you,” Lori reminded her. “Totally obsessed.”
Jess considered the disturbing collage. “Amanda could be envious.”
“Or she’s following his orders,” Lori proposed.
“We’re coming back tomorrow.” Jess gave the room a final once over. “I want to take this place apart piece by piece until we find the answers we need.”
15
9911 Conroy Road, 7:30 p.m.
Jess tossed her bag onto the sofa and toed off her sneakers. It was good to be home even if the place did smell like the pizza the girls had brought over last night. The odor didn’t help her mood. She was dead tired and couldn’t decide if the taco she’d eaten on the way home was going to stay down. Lil had called her twice since five o’clock. The first time had been to inquire whether Jess had heard her test results, she had not, and the last time to invite her and Dan to dinner. Meanwhile, Dan had called to say he would be late again.
Jess was too worn out to be good company to anyone. She just wanted to close out the world and relax—if she could stop worrying about Dan. Something was going on with him and he wasn’t sharing. Working the case in Scottsboro, Jess felt completely disconnected with what was happening around here. Even the efforts to find Spears had fallen off her radar beyond the possibility that he was somehow involved with Amanda Brownfield. Part of her felt guilty allowing a few hours to go by without thinking of Rory Stinnett and Monica Atmore. The reality was she could do little or nothing for those women. If the Joint Task Force working the Spears case couldn’t, how could Jess hope to? She told herself repeatedly that her job was to focus on her case, and still she felt guilty.
“A lifetime of therapy wouldn’t fix that, Jess,” she muttered.
When Dan came home, she wanted an update on what was going on with him and the Allen case. He wasn’t pulling that let’s-not-talk-about-work tactic again tonight.
She armed the security system, locked up, and headed for the bathroom. A long hot bath was calling her name. She gathered a fresh towel and her favorite bath oil and placed them next to the tub. When she reached for the razor on the sink, she knocked it to the floor instead.
“Shoot.” On her knees, she reached between the toilet and the sink to retrieve the damned thing. That confounded hole she’d meant to patch caught her eye. She hissed a curse. “I’m going to fix you.”
Razor in hand, she sat back on her heels and contemplated going next door to ask for caulk. George shouldn’t be in bed this early. The hole didn’t really worry her. The apartment had been gone over by a top security expert who had found no hidden cameras or listening devices.
Still, bugs and spiders could crawl through holes that size with ease. Her landlord would have already fixed it, if she’d remembered to mention it to him. It wasn’t a big deal. She could take care of it. All she needed was a little caulk.
Maybe she’d ask him tomorrow. “No.” She pushed to her feet. There was a truckload of things she’d put off already, like getting new clothes and deciding what she and Dan were going to do next about a house and a wedding and…
She groaned. It was time to stop procrastinating. This child would need a home when he or she arrived. Jess had no idea how long it took to build a house, but what she did know was that there was no time to waste.
She marched back to the door, pulled on her shoes, tucked her Glock into her waistband, and went through the paces to open the door. As she descended the stairs, she waved to her surveillance detail. It would be dark soon. Summer was fading fast. Too bad the heat was moving out a whole lot slower. Jess could hardly believe that Labor Day was this coming Monday. Where had the time gone? The invitation to the Baron family barbecue flitted through her head but she wasn’t worrying about that right now.
The lights beyond the front windows of her landlord’s home glowed. Good, he was still up. She knocked on the door and blinked away the images of the Man in the Moon forcing her out this same door. He’d had a gun to her back and the child he’d abducted in one arm.
Thankfully, that child had survived unharmed and so had Jess. She hoped Maddie Brownfield would come out of this a survivor. That little girl had so many strikes against her already.
The door opened and George Louis smiled. “Jess!” He nudged his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Come in.” Drawing the door open wide in welcome, he asked, “Have you had dinner? I just finished a bowl of the very best stew you’ve ever eaten.”
Jess stepped inside so he could close the door and stop letting all the nice cool air escape. “I had a taco on the way home.” Her stomach rumbled defiantly as a hunger pain warned that the nausea had passed and something more substantial was in order. How had she turned into an eating machine so quickly?
“You have to try this stew.” He wrapped her arm around his and ushered her into the kitchen. “My sister used to make it on cold winter nights. I decided there was no need to wait for winter to enjoy a good stew.”
“Don’t go to any trouble for me. I just came over to get some caulk.” The aroma of home cooked stew lingered in the air and Jess couldn’t deny her mouth was watering.
George frowned as he ladled stew into a bowl. “White caulk?”
“There’s a hole in the bathroom floor near the toilet. White would be fine.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “I guess the electrician who hung the new lights in my garage last year was a little careless with his drill.” George set the bowl on the table and motioned for her to have a seat. “We’ll get you a little caulk from the garage after you’ve eaten. Dan isn’t home yet?”
Jess was always taking advantage of her landlord’s generosity. She hadn’t meant to be a bother. “He’ll be home later.”
George clasped his hands in front of him as if he intended to pray. “We’ll send a bowl home for him.” He sat down across the table fro
m Jess. “I took a bowl out to the nice young officer watching over you.” His face beamed with pride. “He gobbled it right up.”
Jess had a taste and she understood why anyone would gobble it up. “This is divine.” She had yet to eat anything George prepared that wasn’t scrumptious.
He blushed at the compliment. “How is your case going?” His expression turned to one of regret. “I saw that story about you and that evil serial killer. I wish you had told me the sort of trouble you were facing. I could have been watching more carefully.”
Someone had been in Jess’s apartment at least once. Maybe George was right. An extra level of security never hurt and he was always home. “You probably would have had second thoughts about renting to me if you’d known how often my work followed me home.” Her presence in George Louis’s garage apartment had certainly been an inconvenience for the man at times. Like when a killer showed up at his door with the child he’d abducted. Or when George had graciously submitted to a thorough search of his property. He had been very accommodating through it all.
“Nonsense.” George waved off the suggestion. “I’m very glad you’re here. I didn’t realize how lonely I’d been until you came into my life.” His smile broadened into a big grin. “You keep life interesting.”
Jess laughed. “I’m glad you can still see it that way, George.”
The conversation turned to football and the upcoming holiday weekend. Since George had no family, he had his own private cookout planned. Jess would have to stop in to say hello—if she wasn’t tied up with a case.
That wall of envy Amanda Brownfield had created intruded into Jess’s thoughts. Maybe Wanda Newsom was more right than she realized. Jess apparently did have a way of attracting evil.
The thought made Jess angry with herself. Her aunt knew nothing about her life. She was a bitter, lonely old woman desperate for attention. Her conspiracy theories about Jess’s father were likely nothing more than the remembered delusions of a former drug addict.
Later, with a hefty bowl of stew wrapped in foil and held in both hands, Jess returned to her apartment. She deposited the stew on the table before going down to the garage to join George in the search for caulk. That big El Dorado she’d yet to see him drive was as clean and shiny as if he’d washed and waxed it today. Every shelf in the garage was neat and organized. The space smelled of wood shavings and oil. Not the kind of oil used in the maintenance of cars but the type furniture refinishers used. George was quite the handyman.
He pointed up to the ceiling. “That’s your bathroom. I can’t see the hole. Does it come all the way through?”
Jess shrugged. “I don’t know. Both times I checked I couldn’t see anything, but the light down here wasn’t on either of those times so I really can’t say.”
George retrieved a caulk gun loaded with a tube of the white stuff. “Hold out your hand.” Jess turned her left palm up. He squeezed a dollop of the caulk there. “Just stuff that into the hole and wipe away the excess. If that doesn’t take care of it, I’ll get some tile grout.”
“Thanks. I’ll do it right now.”
George walked her to the bottom of the stairs that led up to her apartment. She thanked him again for dinner then headed up. Hopefully, Dan would be home soon. Until then, that bath was calling her name. She was beyond exhausted. Maybe she should hire George to have dinner prepared every night. She laughed at the idea of how much Dan would love that. He was a damned good cook himself and more than a little skeptical of George Louis.
The caulk worked like a charm and was barely noticeable. Jess rubbed the remainder onto a paper towel and tossed it in the trash. The small can in her kitchen was at the overflow point. Between the pizza box on the floor next to it and the empty wine bottle Sylvia had left, it was past time that the trash was taken out. She thought about waiting until Dan came home, but there was no way to know when that would be and he would be exhausted as well. The sooner she disposed of the box the more quickly the smell would dissipate.
Besides, the exercise would be good for her. At the rate she was consuming whatever anyone put in front of her, she should take advantage of every opportunity to burn a few extra calories.
Glock in her waistband, she descended the stairs once more, waved again to the officer leaning against his cruiser, and headed for the big trash receptacle on the other side of the garage. George’s interior lights were out now. The man went to bed with the chickens and was up at the crack of dawn.
Jess lifted the lid and tossed in her bag. It bounced against a discarded box. The logo caught her attention before she tossed the pizza container in. Babies R Us? Jess reached in and turned the box over. The shipping label showed George’s name and address. Since he didn’t have any family, she couldn’t imagine what he would be ordering from a store that specialized in baby stuff. She was the one who needed to be shopping there.
“Weird,” she muttered as she pitched in the pizza box and let the lid drop. She turned around and ran smack into a body. The air evacuated her lungs before her brain assimilated what her eyes saw. George.
“I didn’t mean to startle you.” He held up a trash bag. “I guess we’re on the same wave length. I wanted to get the trash out of the house before I went to bed.”
Jess pressed a hand to her chest. “Jesus.” She worked at catching her breath. “You scared the daylights out of me.”
He moved around her and dropped his bag into the receptacle. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you. I guess you were distracted.”
“Just tired,” she assured him, feeling foolish for overreacting. “It’s been a strange week.”
He patted her arm. “You work too hard, Jess. You need to take some time off. Perhaps you need a hobby. I’m already putting together my Christmas donation for the Children’s Charity. I give loads and loads of toys every year.”
Her tension eased a bit. “I’d love to help. Please let me know what I need to do.”
He ducked his head. “That would mean a great deal to me and to the children.”
All the way back to her door Jess felt like a total heel for being suspicious of the old man. He had gone out of his way to be nice to her and she was constantly looking for something wrong. Hazard of the job. Dan’s misgivings didn’t help either.
Back in her apartment, she locked up, set the alarm, and started that bath she’d been yearning for. She located her favorite nightshirt and something silky and sexy to wear underneath for Dan. As fast as she could, she stripped off her clothes and climbed into the welcoming warmth of the water.
It took a few minutes, but the stress of the day slowly melted from her muscles. She let her mind wander off into the future when she and Dan would have a home of their own and this kid running about. They’d need someone they could trust to take care of the baby. Maybe she’d talk to Lil. She was a nurse. She hadn’t worked in years, but now that her kids were away in college she was complaining that she wanted something to do. Maybe Jess would test the waters to see if Lil was interested in being a full time auntie. As far as houses went, the kind and size didn’t really matter to Jess as long as Dan was there.
Sleep had just about lured her into its depths when the security system warned that someone was coming up the stairs. She sat up, the water sloshing, and reached for the Glock on the floor next to the tub. Her wet fingers closed around the butt as she listened for footsteps. The sound of the door to her apartment opening had her holding breath.
“Jess?”
Dan.
She relaxed and settled the Glock back on the floor. “In here!”
He filled the doorway, took a long look at her and then one of those sexy smiles of his slid across his mouth. Those dimples had her heart doing a little pitty-pat. He stared at her with such longing that it almost took her breath all over again.
“How was your day?” He slipped off his jacket and let it drop to the floor.
She stared at the discarded garment for a moment. “We found another bod
y.” She looked up as he came a step closer and reached for the buttons at his cuffs. Every move he made had her heart pounding a little harder.
“I heard.” He rolled up first one sleeve and then the other. “The boyfriend?”
Jess nodded, not sure she could speak without stuttering. They were supposed to talk, she reminded herself, but when he knelt next to the tub that thought vanished.
“I’m sorry I’m late again.”
He was late. She licked her lips and took one last stab at having that talk with him. “Is something going on you should be telling me about?”
He swept a wisp of hair back from her forehead and then traced the line of her jaw. She shivered. “Not really. Have I told you lately how beautiful you are?” The other hand slipped beneath the water and found her breast. “Still tender?”
That was one of the other things about being pregnant. Her breasts were achy. “Yes. And yes.” But the gentle way he touched her made her forget all about aches and pains and weariness. She just wanted him to keep doing it.
His hand slid down her torso, parted her thighs, and started an intimate exploration. “I want you,” he murmured.
Her body responded instantly. “Not as much as I want you.”
His hand fell away as he stood. Her breath hitched. From this angle, she could clearly see just how much he wanted her. He stripped off his shirt, then his trousers. The socks hit the floor, followed immediately by his boxers.
The water churned and splashed, a little spilling over onto the floor as he settled in the other end of the claw foot tub. He reached for her and she climbed onto him, her legs coming to rest on either side of his waist. While his hands traced her body, her fingers found that part of him she wanted deep inside her. She eased downward, taking all of him before wilting helplessly against his chest.
She closed her eyes and listened to his heart beating. For a long while that was all she needed, just that sound and the feel of him joined with her. His hands tightened around her hips and gently rocked her back and forth. Need ignited, urging her to move faster. She refused. Instead, arching upright, she closed her fingers around the edges of the tub as she set a painfully slow, easy pace.