Unmarked Graves

by Christine Pope

  “Go ahead and have a seat,” he told her. “Sorry about the books.”

  Because of course there was a stack of books sitting on the chair, as though they’d ended up there because he’d run out of room on the bookshelves. Rosemary suppressed a grin and gathered up the stack, then set it down on the floor in a spot that appeared to be relatively out of the way.

  “It’s fine,” she said. Actually, it was nice to be with someone who appeared to love books as much as she did. So many of the men she met didn’t seem interested in reading at all. “Have you found anything?”

  He nodded. “I think so. The best flight I’ve found is one from Ontario — I figured we wouldn’t want to fly out of LAX — that only has an hour layover in Dallas Fort Worth. It leaves a little before one in the afternoon and gets us in to Indianapolis at eleven.”

  “So we’ll lose a whole day traveling?”

  “It looks that way.” He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it slightly. The resulting disheveled style made him look so gorgeous in a rumpled way that Rosemary didn’t sit down, but instead went over to him and pressed a kiss against the top of his head. He lifted a hand from the keyboard and reached out to her, their fingers clasping so he could pull her closer and give her a real kiss. When it ended, he remarked, “You’re quite distracting, you know that?”

  She grinned. “I try to be. Anyway, if you think that flight is the best one, then you might as well book it.”

  “Okay.” He was silent for a few minutes as he made his selections and then entered his credit card information. Rosemary tried not to wince at the price, although she realized that a little over five hundred dollars for last-minute airfare across the country really wasn’t that bad. She couldn’t help noticing that he didn’t book round-trip tickets, probably because they had no idea how long this crazy mission was even going to take. Once that was done, he navigated over to the hotel booking site. “It looks like there’s only one real hotel in Greencastle itself,” he told her. “Luckily, it’s pretty highly rated.”

  “Would it matter if it wasn’t?”

  His mouth quirked. “Probably not.” A minute or so passed as he went through the process of entering his information there, and then he closed the laptop. “We’re all set. Now all we have to do is rest until it’s time to leave.”

  Rosemary could have thought of a few things they should do to occupy themselves…but she also knew that their upcoming trip would be tiring enough for him. Maybe once they were in Greencastle they could make full use of their hotel room, although she knew she’d have to wait and see how Will was feeling. This wasn’t a pleasure trip, after all. Honestly, she didn’t know exactly what it was.

  More like a suicide mission, she thought grimly, although she pushed that horrible notion away almost as soon as it entered her head. Neither one of them exactly knew what they’d be facing once they reached Indiana.

  Which was probably a good thing.

  She managed a smile and touched Will on the shoulder. “Well, now that’s taken care of, why don’t we relax for a bit? I doubt a doctor would recommend reading, but it should probably be okay for you to put your feet up and watch TV for a while.”

  He didn’t respond at first, and for a moment, Rosemary was worried he might protest, might tell her that no, they couldn’t waste time watching television and instead needed to have her work on flexing her psychic muscles, just so they could see what her powers could and couldn’t do. That probably was a good idea, and yet she knew she was dead tired, and if she was feeling that way, she could only imagine how Will must feel. Practice was good, but rest was better.

  His mouth lifted in response, and he nodded. “Yes, let’s take it easy for a bit.”

  Odd how they could have such a lovely, easy evening when they had so much hanging over their heads. Just as Rosemary had suggested, they watched TV — or rather, they binged old Quantum Leap episodes from a DVD boxed set he owned — ordered in dinner, and then watched one more episode before they both started nodding off a little after eight.

  “We might as well try to sleep,” he told her, and she made a face like a five-year-old being told she was staying up past her bedtime, mouth pursed and nose screwed up. She looked so adorable, he wanted to lean in and kiss her, kiss her hard — but he knew that probably wasn’t a very good idea. They’d both been keeping things as casual as they could, although Will could feel the sexual tension simmering just under the surface. Tired as they were, they might not be able to hold back if he initiated anything that seemed like intimate contact.

  But then Rosemary had chuckled and said, “I feel like a loser going to bed this early, but I see your point. We’re already close to passing out.”

  “Exactly.”

  So they’d gotten up from the couch, and he’d told her to go ahead and use the bathroom first. While he was waiting for her, he sat on the bed with his feet up, noting how exhausted he really was, praying that his strength would return the next day. At least he would be able to sleep normally tonight rather than being woken up every hour on the hour, but he still worried that he was pushing things. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much of a choice. The only other person he knew who could have managed this trip to Greencastle was a state away in Tucson…and apparently was under siege by demons doing everything they could to make sure he stayed put.

  Will did his best to reassure himself that Rosemary’s remarkable powers were their ace in the hole, the one thing the demons couldn’t see coming. At least, he had to hope that Caleb hadn’t reported back to his father or someone else in authority how his would-be girlfriend had turned out to have some fairly spectacular demon-fighting tricks up her sleeve. It was hard to know for certain, since he had no idea when Caleb had actually died.

  Only part of the mystery, however. More important was who had killed him…and why. The only thing they knew now was that it hadn’t been Rosemary.

  “I’m out!” she called down the hallway.

  “Thanks!” Will called back, and pushed himself up off the bed. He caught a glimpse of her going down the hall in an oversized T-shirt and a pair of black leggings, her wild hair caught up in a scrunchie. From the back, she looked about fifteen years old, and he had to suppress a smile. A woman of contradictions, Rosemary McGuire.

  And he liked her that way. She was so utterly different from anyone else he’d known, so strong and smart and beautiful, but vulnerable, too, doing her best to hide the hurts she’d carried with her through the years. He felt honored that she’d allowed him into her heart, and vowed he would do whatever he could to make sure she remained safe through any ordeals they might face in Greencastle.

  There was barely any sign that she’d used the bathroom before him, except for a damp towel and a few splashes in the sink. Obviously, she’d tried to be careful to leave things as clean as she’d found them, and he smiled a little at her thoughtfulness.

  No point in studying his reflection — he already knew he looked like hell. No, he splashed some water on his face, brushed and flossed and took care of other business, then went down the hall back to his bedroom. The room felt very dark when he turned out his bedside lamp, although he somehow knew there was nothing to fear in that darkness. Why should there be? Rosemary had used the glowing power of light within her to cast wards stronger than those which protected Michael Covenant’s house, and Will felt sure nothing that meant them any ill could make its way in here.

  Even so, despite knowing the house was protected, and despite knowing he was probably more tired than he’d been since the days when he pulled all-nighters in college, he found himself restless, as though they had overlooked something vital, a clue that had been right under their noses the entire time. Was it merely that they should have guessed the cambions and their families still lived somewhere in Indiana?

  He didn’t think so. After all, there hadn’t been much time to put two and two together.

  But something….

  Problem was, he
hadn’t been trained for this sort of thing. He wasn’t a detective or private investigator. Hell, he didn’t even read mystery novels.

  Still….

  He sat up in bed, frowning. Maybe it was simply the thought of the demon/humans who lived in Greencastle, Indiana, but Will realized the one thing they hadn’t done was check Caleb’s house here in Southern California. At least, he assumed the man must have had some sort of home base here, although Rosemary hadn’t mentioned it. Not terribly surprising — he could tell she was embarrassed by her relationship with Caleb, was still giving herself grief over that even though there was no way in the world she could have known who — or what — he really was.

  A quick glance at the digital clock on his nightstand told Will it really wasn’t that late, not quite eight-thirty. Not so strange a time of night to go visit a house, even on a Sunday evening.

  Suddenly determined, he pushed himself out of bed, paused to throw on a T-shirt so he wouldn’t walk into the guest room bare-chested, and then headed down the hallway. Rosemary had pulled the door shut, so he paused and knocked.

  “Rosemary?” he said. “Are you awake? I just thought of something.”

  A few seconds passed, and then the door opened and she stared out at him, expression confused but not sleepy. Apparently, she’d been having as hard a time falling asleep as he had. “What is it?”

  “Where was Caleb living?”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “Did you ever go to the house where he was living here in Southern California?”

  Almost at once, the bewilderment left her features, and her eyes narrowed slightly. “Yes,” she replied. “It’s in Eagle Rock.”

  “Could you find it again?”

  “I think so.” She tilted her head up at him and asked, “What are you thinking, Will?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said. “A hunch, nothing more. But maybe — just maybe — Caleb left the footage there before he went back to the Glendale house and got ambushed.”

  “Which means we might not have to go to Indiana after all?”

  “Maybe not,” Will replied. “We’ll have to see what we can find.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Rosemary said, and then flashed him a smile. “I hope those plane tickets are refundable….”

  Chapter 12

  They’d gotten dressed again in haste, and Will handed Rosemary the keys to his car as they exited the house. At least by that point, the rain had stopped, although the roads were still slick and she knew she’d have to be careful. Good thing that the freeways were never all that busy on Sunday nights.

  She slid behind the wheel of the Challenger, then backed out of the driveway and guided the car down Lake Avenue so they could jump on the westbound 210 Freeway. Will didn’t speak, but she could sense the tension in him. Was he keyed up because he didn’t like the idea of her driving his car, or was it simply that the thing they sought might soon be within reach?

  Or they could be going on a wild goose chase, just as she had with Caleb when he was tricking her into helping him find the damn footage the first time. Also, just because she knew where he’d been living while maintaining the false person of Caleb Dixon, would-be indie filmmaker, that didn’t mean they’d be able to gain access to the property to do a search.

  “Caleb has a roommate,” she blurted, and Will looked over at her in some surprise.

  “Have you met him?”

  “No,” she admitted as she guided the car over into the fast lane. “Caleb said he was off on a location shoot.”

  “Which might or might not have been the truth.”

  That was the problem, wasn’t it? It seemed Caleb had pretty much lied to her every time he opened his mouth, but he might have mixed some truth in with the lies. Well, if it turned out the mythical roommate actually was home, she’d make up some kind of story — that she’d left something there the last time she’d visited, and she’d tried to call Caleb and never got an answer, and oh, no, something terrible had happened to him? She had no idea….

  Rosemary felt her mouth curl in a grim little smile. Seemed like she was getting pretty good at this lying thing as well, considering the story she’d just cooked up in her head, not to mention the whoppers she’d told Detective Phillips.

  Because Will was staring out the car window at the rain-slick freeway, he apparently couldn’t see her expression. He went on, “I think it’s far more likely he lived alone. He wouldn’t have wanted a regular human to know anything about his comings and goings.”

  “Unless his roommate was another part-demon, just like him.”

  They did seem to pop up with alarming regularity, after all.

  “Possibly.”

  They drove in silence after that, until Rosemary eased the car off the freeway at the Eagle Rock Boulevard exit and then turned off into the hills. Thank God she’d driven this way on her own, and not just as a passenger in Caleb’s car, because generally once she’d driven to a place, she could remember pretty well how to get there.

  And that was the case now, as she allowed her bump of direction or whatever it was to guide her up to the street where Caleb’s house was located. As they drove, however, she noticed right away that a small group of people were standing at the base of the driveway, apparently having some sort of a discussion, although the street wasn’t very well lit and she couldn’t quite make out their expressions.

  “What’s going on?” she murmured, and Will shook his head.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “But we’re here now, so I think we need to still try.”

  “It’s okay,” Rosemary told him. “I already have a story ready to go.”

  The corner of his mouth that she could see lifted slightly. “Well, that should help.”

  She pulled up to the curb and parked, and then the two of them got out of the car. As the little group of people in the driveway turned to look at them, Rosemary was glad that she’d finger-fluffed her hair and put on some lip gloss before leaving Will’s house, just in case they ended up having to actually interact with anyone.

  Putting what she hoped was an appropriately concerned expression on her face, she approached the closest member of the group, a woman around her mother’s age, with dishwater-blonde hair and skin that looked deeply tanned even in the dim illumination from the streetlight half a block away. “Excuse me…what’s going on?”

  The woman stared at her for a second or two, and then, improbably, recognition seemed to dawn on her sharp features. “You came and visited Caleb, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” Rosemary replied. “We dated for a little bit. Actually, I left my earrings here a while back and was trying to get in touch so I could come get them, but Caleb never returned my calls. He — ”

  “Oh,” the woman said, her hand going to her mouth. “You didn’t hear?”

  “Hear what?” Rosemary returned, although of course she knew exactly what the woman was talking about.

  “I’m Linda,” the woman said. “I own the house Caleb was renting — I live up the street.” She gestured vaguely up the hill. “I’m so sorry for you to find out this way, but the police called me earlier and told me he’d been found dead of an apparent drowning.”

  Next to Rosemary, Will shifted and stared at Linda. “He what?”

  “Who’re you?” she asked.

  A natural enough question, considering that, as far as Linda knew, Rosemary was still dating Caleb. “He’s, um…he’s my big brother Will,” she said hastily. “I had him come with me as moral support.”

  This bald-faced lie made Will lift an eyebrow — but only for a second, his incredulous expression come and gone so quickly, Rosemary doubted Linda had even noticed it.

  “Oh, well…I’m sorry you both had to find out like this,” she said. “I guess the police called me because mine was the only local contact number he had in his wallet.”

  Rosemary nodded, doing her best to look shocked and surprised and sad. Actually, she was a little surprised by the revelation th
at the house was owned by someone up the street and not some mythical roommate’s parents in Tempe, Arizona. Not too much, because Caleb hadn’t told the truth about much of anything, but she did find it interesting that he’d taken the risk of renting a place where the landlord lived so close by. Had he been enamored of the view, or had he simply taken it because he needed a home base and maybe Linda was an easygoing landlord, someone who didn’t ask for a lot of references, or possibly just offered a month-to-month agreement instead of the sort of ironclad leases that most homeowners these days required?

  There was no way to ask without sounding completely intrusive, and so Rosemary shrugged the question aside. What she really needed to do was get inside the house and see if that damn hard drive was somewhere in there.

  “It’s all right,” she said slowly, knowing that Linda was still watching her, obviously expecting an answer. “We, um…we actually had kind of a spat. It was stupid, but….” She let the words trail off, then gathered a breath and said, “I thought that was why he wasn’t calling me back. And I know this sounds terrible, but is there any way you could let me inside to see if I could find my earrings? Normally, I would never ask, but they belonged to my grandmother and — ”

  “Oh, no, it’s fine,” Linda broke in, her expression sympathetic. “The police have come and gone, and they cleared me to enter the property. Let me take you inside and see if we can find those earrings.”

  Relief surged through Rosemary, and she allowed herself a quick glance at Will. He nodded almost imperceptibly, and followed a few paces behind as the two women walked up the driveway and then went inside the house. Linda reached over to touch the switch on the wall just inside the front door, and recessed lighting in the living room turned on, illuminating the space.

  Everything looked pretty much as it had when Rosemary was here almost two weeks earlier — the same mishmash of hand-me-down furniture, the same flat-weave rug on the wooden floor. For some reason, she’d been expecting to see the house turned inside out by the police, but she realized they had no real reason to do a thorough inspection here, since his death had happened miles away. No, they’d probably come in and looked for anything that might have provided a reason for his presence at the house on Las Flores Drive, but there certainly was no reason to tear the place apart.