A Reason To Kill (Reason #2)

by C. P. Smith

  When his hands appeared on either side of me, he leaned in, pinning me to the railing. Caught off guard by his action I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. Without a word, he moved my hair aside and I felt his warm breath on my neck. Not thinking about what I was doing, I tilted my head to the side as his tongue snaked out, tasting my skin. All my bravado about keeping my distance fell out the window when his lips traveled up my neck. I moaned a bit when he nipped my ear, rubbing my ass against his crotch. The next thing I knew he turned me around, ripped the glasses from my face, and pinned my head with both hands as he consumed my mouth.

  Screw the steaks, I thought as his hands found their way around my body. One made its way to my ass, cupping it, and the other slid to my breast, his thumb brushing gently across my nipple. I inhaled sharply as nerve endings came to life, and my knees buckled slightly. When my weight gave way, Max ripped his mouth from mine and picked me up so I could wrap my legs around his waist.

  “Fuck the steaks,” he gritted out as he turned and headed towards the door.

  “Okay, that works for me,” I agreed breathlessly and then lunged at his mouth. Hell, if I was going to do this I might as well participate to the best of my ability.

  We’d made it to his front door when the sound of tires on the gravel drive broke us apart. Max looked towards the driveway as I climbed off his body and he growled “Maxine.”

  Smoothing down my shirt, I stepped back to wait for his mother. Max didn’t like the distance between us ‘cause he reached out and hooked me around the shoulders, drawing me back to him. I lost my footing, per usual, and slammed into the side of his body just as I heard footsteps on the deck and a sultry voice say, “There’s my girl.”

  Stunned at hearing that voice, I looked up, saw the familiar face I adored, and squealed “Aunt Jess?”

  Ten

  Green Willies

  “And then I told him, 'Handsome, if I wanted to get married, I would have done it when Eddie Van Halen asked.'"

  “No shit?” Lucy asked, eyes wide in wonder.

  “My lips are sealed,” Aunt Jess, laughed.

  My current location, again, was Last Call with Lucy, Frank and now my Aunt Jessica or Jess as I call her. She’s my mother’s younger sister and the black sheep of our family. To me, she’s just Jess, the coolest aunt a girl could have had when growing up.

  Here’s the thing about Auntie Jess, no one, and I do mean no one would ever put her in the category of, say, elder aunt. At forty-five, she looked middle thirties. She has long, dark auburn hair, big green eyes, and a complexion like a baby's butt, smooth and soft.

  Jess has never been married and never had kids, has the figure of a twenty-year-old and the boobs of a woman who’s had plastic surgery. Dressed in faded jeans, western boots, and a tight fitting concert tee from some reunion show in Sturgis. In addition, she’d topped that off with a jeans jacket and trendy scarf. She looked great as always and the men in the bar couldn’t take their eyes off her. Typical Jess—and I loved her dearly.

  Jess is a bit of a nomad, she travels around the country with her roadie friends, hanging backstage with aging musicians still trying to hang on to their youth.

  My mom, ten years Jess’s senior, was never close with her sister. They’re as opposite as night and day. Mom, being much older, grew up in a time when women wore dresses while doing housework and had dinner waiting when their husband’s arrived home. Aunt Jess grew up during Woodstock and watched my grandmother burn her bra as she demanded equality.

  Basically, they had two different mothers who occupied the same body. The result of Gram’s own personal growth and rebellion, was prim and proper Judy Roberts, girlie girl, perfect wife and mother, and Jessica Franklin, women’s libber and eternal hippie. She dressed like she was twenty, partied like she was twenty, and for an awkward girl who preferred books to sports having an aunt who was seriously cool kicked-ass. However, it drove my mother insane. Between my mother’s influence and my aunt, I turned into a girlie girl who loved music and dressed down most of the time. I preferred my jeans and collection of quirky T-shirts to grownup clothes thanks to Jess, and got my work ethic and all things girlie from my mother. My clothes drove my mother nuts, and my dedication to work drove Jess nuts. (She’s tried to get me to go on the road with her for years.)

  That being said, I was shocked when Jess showed up at Max’s house. She’d called a week ago and I’d told her I was headed to Alaska to conduct the triannual field study. So, Jess being Jess, she decided she’d pay me a surprise visit. When she arrived in town and asked how to find me, residents of Trails End, of course, pointed her in Maxine’s direction. Upon hearing of my arrest, she’d laughed and then asked Maxine to take her to my location.

  When she arrived at Max’s, like a force of nature, she’d taken one look at Thor and proceeded to flirt with him. Then she high-fived me for kneeing Stetson and insisted we go out for drinks to celebrate my incarceration.

  Max had been laid back about the whole leaving thing considering where we’d been headed. He’d put the steaks away, said they’d keep for another night and to go spend time with my aunt, right before he’d kissed me goodbye so deeply I’d had second thoughts about leaving.

  That brings us to now . . . shots and Aunt Jess.

  “What gives with you and the gladiator?” Jess asked as she nudged my shoulder.

  “Who Max?” I stalled.

  “Spill, pipsqueak.”

  “Just a guy who lives here,” I lied again. I wasn’t sure what Max was other than a constant thought in my head.

  “Oh, come on, that clinch you were in says otherwise,” Jess laughed.

  “Clinch? D.E.T.A.I.L.S woman and hold nothing back,” Lucy demanded.

  “That’s my cue to play a game of pool,” Frank sighed.

  Some local got up on the stage to sing so we all turned around to watch. I kept sipping my beer hoping Jess would drop the twenty questions. Unfortunately, when the song ended and the applause died down, she slung her arm around me and said, “Time’s up, tell Auntie Jess all about it.”

  Per usual, whenever I was around my beloved crazy aunt, I couldn’t help myself, so I spilled to her and Lucy. About the bears, singing drunk, Max carrying me home and flirting with me. Then I told her about Donald, being chased by the killer and falling into the river. Of course, I wasn’t done there, so I told her more about Max, being a decoy for crazy Maxine, kneeing Stetson (just not why), being suspended, the whole pain in my ass or someone more, probably being set up as the killer and the best damn kisses I’d ever had.

  “And you’ve been here how many days?

  “This makes day four,” Lucy replied.

  “Jesus, Mia Bear, I couldn’t be prouder if you were my own daughter.”

  As I said, Aunt Jess was crazy.

  Lifting my bottle, the three of us clinked them together in a female salute to “being bad when you can and living life to the fullest,” (Jess’s motto, not mine.)

  I liked to have fun and I’m no wallflower, but my idea of having a good time didn’t include being arrested for defacing public property or stealing cars to get to a concert.

  “You may be proud, but when Mom and Dad get back from their tour of India, I’m sure I’ll get an earful.”

  “Then don’t tell them. They don’t need to know every detail of your life, just concentrate on your job,” she advised with a wave of her hand.

  “What job? I was suspended, remember? Now I’m stuck here spinning my wheels wondering who has it out for me.”

  “Uh, your job to sleep with that gorgeous man and keep him occupied. Forget about the rest. It’ll all work out in the end. Then you can go back home and forget all about this place.”

  “Jesus, Jess—” I got out before a loud crash had me looking over my shoulder. Annie was walking away from a recycling bin when I turned around.

  I turned back to tell Jess I wasn’t going to sleep with Max as a decoy. That if it happened, and my ability to control mysel
f around him said it was possible, it would be because I wanted him, not to keep him out of Maxine’s hair. When I looked over at Jess to tell her just that, I found her pulling a pen, paper and a pair of glasses out of her purse.

  “You finally gave in and bought readers?”

  “Yeah, I may not like it, but father time, unfortunately, is catching up with me. Now, if someone is out to get you as you say, let’s make a list of who you know and might have pissed off.”

  “Considering our association with Donald that would be the whole town,” Lucy jumped in.

  “Ok, that won’t work. Who knew you threw that axe?”

  “Um, I don’t know, maybe seventy-five people.”

  “So, the killer had to have been in the crowd, then got pissed off when he heard what Donald said and decided to frame you, right?”

  “Yeah, that sounds plausible,” I agreed.

  “Do you know what evidence they found at the scene? Did you see anything?”

  “I told you, the killer came up behind me and I took off, I didn’t see anything other than Donald’s body.”

  “Why do we assume it’s a man?” Lucy asked.

  “Has to be, a woman wouldn’t have the strength to fight either man,” I told her.

  “Yet, the police think it’s you?”

  “Stetson thinks it’s me because the killings started when we came to town and the fact they haven’t had a murder in thirty years. Since I found Curly too, he decided it’s me.”

  “Then we need to find out what they found at the scene,” Jess responded.

  I tried to picture the scene in my head. Was there anything other than Donald’s body and the axe? Then I thought about my escape and subsequent fall into the river and it hit me.

  “Wait a minute. Stetson never had me show him where I fell off the ridge.”

  “So there could be evidence there?”

  “Maybe, I better call him in the morning.”

  Frank walked up talking on his phone as we spoke and when he hung up, he smiled and announced, “SIOZ got their lawyers involved and we’ve been cleared to go back to work, Lucy.”

  “Thank God, at least we won’t lose five years of research to this mess,” Lucy replied.

  “Mia, just a thought,” Jess broke in. “If Stetson has a hard-on for you and there is evidence on the ridge, you need to know what that is. I say we take a look and see what’s what before you call him.”

  “I’m not allowed up there, Stetson’s orders, he’d know if I went up with Frank and Lucy.”

  “Then we go in under the cover of darkness, say, right now.”

  “I’m in,” Lucy immediately responded.

  “I’m in too. What are we talking about by the way?” Frank asked.

  “I don’t know, Jess. Me, in the dark, climbing the ridge?”

  “Loosen up kid have I ever steered you wrong, you’ll be fine.”

  “My junior prom dress?”

  “You looked hot.”

  “That perm?”

  “Okay, not my best idea.”

  “Nude modeling?”

  “Jeez, get over it already. I didn’t know they would use you, I figured hot guys laying on the couch.”

  “You modeled in the nude?” Frank whispered a little huskily.

  “I’ve blocked it out,” I sighed.

  “I’ve just blocked it in,” he grinned.

  “Keep it up and I’ll tell your wife you had a dick in your mouth.”

  “Really? Do tell.” Jess perked up.

  “It was chocolate,” Frank chuckled.

  “Mmm, even better, chocolate covered co—”

  “Jess!”

  “Sorry, sorry. Ok, focus children. I say we grab a flashlight and climb tonight, who’s with me?”

  “I’m in,” we all replied because, per usual, when Jess said jump, everyone said how high.

  “That was nice of Stetson,” Lucy mumbled as Frank shined the flashlight on the crime scene.

  Armed with bear repellent and a flashlight, the climb so far had been uneventful. I’d tripped a few times and we’d made enough noise to keep any animals at bay. Now, having arrived at the crime scene, an eerie quiet settled over the four of us. They may have opened Grizzly Pointe, but they hadn’t taken down the crime scene yet. And seeing the yellow tape coupled with the ghostly quiet, sent shivers down my spine.

  “Where did you go from here?” Frank asked as we stared at the blood on the ground.

  “I went that direction, straight forward,” I pointed. “Maybe fifty yards or so is the ridge, so be careful,” I explained as we all headed west.

  The full moon cast a decent amount of light the closer we moved to the edge and I could hear the water rushing below. I thought back to the moment I broke through the bush and lost my footing, falling, thankfully, into Max’s waiting arms. That, of course, had me thinking back to the “clinch” that we’d been in before Jess arrived. Then I thought about his mouth, his hands, and the way his tongue fought for dominance and won. Everything about him was powerful, dominant, from his body to his personality. I had no experience with men like Max. Most men I knew were pacifists, activists. Compared to them, he was a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal hell bent on ordering me around. The feminist in me should have been offended, but I was attracted to it for some reason. He may be the opposite of every man I’d ever dated, but my Cavewoman seemed to like his bossy ways.

  “Does any of this look familiar?” Frank asked, shining the flashlight back and forth.

  I tuned back in, and surveyed my surroundings, noting the tree limb I’d gone under in my escape.

  “There, I ducked under that limb. In fact, it’s what saved me ‘cause it slowed him down. He had to duck down lower than I did to get under it, giving me time to fall off the edge.”

  “If he’s trying to set you up why would he chase you?” Jess asked.

  “Maybe he thought I saw him and panicked?”

  “You sure you didn’t turn around, maybe catch a peek?” Lucy inquired.

  “Positive, on a good day I can’t walk upright. No way was I taking my eyes off the ground when my life depended on being surefooted.”

  We moved towards the branch and Frank swept the ground for footprints, looking for anything the killer might have dropped. Say, like a business card that said, “My name is so and so and I killed Donald.”

  There was nothing.

  The pine needles on the ground covered any tracks he might have left behind so we moved past the limb and stopped in front of the bush I’d pushed through before falling off the ridge. Jess went to move past it and I grabbed her arm.

  “You’ll fall if you go any further,” I told her.

  Jess turned back to Frank and stuck out her hand for the flashlight. He handed it to her and she pushed back the side of the bush and shined the light on the edge.

  “Mia Bear, how did you manage to fall?”

  At her question, I looked over her shoulder and found that the edge of the ridge was not a foot or two from the bush but more like ten feet. Shit, that’s what I get for keeping my eyes to the ground.

  I’d run straight off the edge.

  “Ha, for once my vertical challenges saved my life.”

  After scanning the rocky edge for any evidence, we all turned back the way we’d come. It was clear it had been a waste of time coming up here, but I suppose there were worse ways to spend an evening, like in jail for instance. I’ll admit I’d had a small glimmer of hope that we’d find something to put it on someone besides me. So, with each step we took I became more pissed off at my situation. With my job on the line yet I couldn’t leave to smooth things over, I’d never been this off balance in my life. No wonder a man like Max was getting to me. I was floating in a sea of failure and his strong shoulders were holding me up.

  “Wait, shine a light on that limb again,” Lucy shouted.

  Jess moved the light back and started at the end. She made her way down, until sure enough, the color red appeared.


  “Is that blood?” I asked hopefully.

  “I don’t think so,” Frank replied walking forward.

  Jess kept the light trained on the branch as Frank reached out and pulled the object o.

  “What is it?” Lucy asked.

  “Guys, I think we’ve got something,” Frank announced. He raised his hand and was holding what appeared to be a small scrap of red and black checked flannel.

  “Is that from a flannel shirt?” Jess asked excited.

  ‘Yep,” Frank answered.

  I snatched the cloth from him, saw it was red and black checked flannel, and then lost it.

  “This is great,” I laughed, “You’re telling me the only clue to the killer and my freedom is a red and black flannel shirt, in a lumberjack town, with possibly fifteen hundred men? This is great, now all we have to do is figure out is which one wears,” and I held up the scrap “black and red flannel. Oh, my God, I’m so screwed.”

  Pushing past, needing to have a good old fashioned meltdown, I ducked under the limb hell bent on leaving. I don’t know what I thought I would find up here, but the hilarity of my life at this moment had me on edge. I was so on edge that if the killer walked out of the shadows right now I’d knee him in the nuts and ask questions later.

  The beam from the flashlight jumped around casting the forest with light as Jess, Frank, and Lucy followed me. Quietly, I might add. They kept their distance, giving me space to calm down, as I mumbled and cursed down that path. Soon the light dimmed a bit so I stopped and looked back at Frank.

  “Is the flashlight running out of juice?”

  “Yeah, let me change out the batteries,” he answered, pulling his pack off his back. While he dug around for the batteries, Jess opened her purse and produced a can of beer.

  “You got another?” I asked, not giving a shit if drinking while hiking down the path was a good idea.

  Handing me her unopened can I popped the top taking a deep pull. As I handed it back I heard Frank whisper, “Shit, I pulled the batteries out of my pack.”

  “Um, we can’t see to get back down without a flashlight,” I pointed out so Lucy pulled her pack from her back and started digging.