To Kill For

by A. J. Carella

  After she’d left, her sister had told her that her parents had completely cut her out of their will so, when they’d died, the house and the business had passed to her, though the running of it was left to her husband. Kat had had no issue with that. This house, this town, held only bad memories for her and she’d wanted no part of it.

  As a trustee of the estate now though, she had a legal responsibility to look after it and the business until Jamie was found. The sooner you find her, the sooner you can pack up and get out of here, she thought to herself as she pulled her car to a stop outside the front door.

  Letting herself in, she could here Jake and Carrie arguing in the living room through the closed door. Since she’d arrived, that’s all they’d done. They certainly didn’t seem to like each other very much for a couple that were only recently married, she thought to herself.

  Not sure she was feeling up to getting caught in the middle of an argument, she debated going straight upstairs to her room and leaving them to it, but she couldn’t. She had a feeling that Jake could probably use her support. As she went to open the living room door, it was flung open and Carrie stormed out, nearly knocking her over.

  Concerned, Kat poked her head around the door. “Everything okay?” Jake stood by the fire with his hands in his pockets, looking thoroughly miserable.

  “Yeah. She’s just a bit high-strung.” He shrugged and looked at her apologetically.

  That’s not quite how I would describe her, she thought, but kept it to herself, instead saying, “How are you coping?”

  He sighed. “I’m okay, I guess. What hurts the most is that we didn’t find Jamie before they died.” He looked over at her, and Kat could see he was tormented. “You know that Dad and I never really got along, but even so I wouldn’t have wished this on anyone.”

  Going to him, she placed her hand on his arm. “I know that. And I’m so sorry I didn’t come sooner. I should have. I’ll never forgive myself for that.” She felt tears fill her eyes and then spill down her cheeks.

  Jake took a step towards her and pulled her to him in a bear hug and she allowed herself to cry. “You’re here now, that’s all that matters.”

  Reluctantly pulling away, she wiped her eyes. She reminded herself that she had a job to do. “Well, we can’t give up. We can still bring her home.” Turning, she walked to the couch and sat down, indicating that he should do the same. “I spoke to a friend of mine in town today, and he’s going to help me look.” She saw the doubtful expression on his face, but before he could say anything she held up her hand. “I know, I know, the police have already looked. But they might have missed something.”

  He still didn’t look convinced. “Aunt Kat, they spent months looking for her, I doubt you’ll be able to find her, much as I’d like to think you could.”

  Kat refused to consider failure as an option, so she wasn’t about to let Jake see that she had exactly the same doubts. Smiling brightly, she told him, “The difference between us and the police is that we’re much more motivated.” Reaching for a glass decanter and matching glasses that sat on the coffee table, she poured them both a drink. “So, tell me everything you can remember about that day, however unimportant you think it is.”

  He hated lying to Kat, but he couldn’t tell her everything. The police had never found out about Jamie’s visit to Carrie and that they’d had a fight and she’d left there very upset. They’d decided there was no need to tell them, it wasn’t relevant to her disappearance. He’d wanted to initially, but Carrie had convinced him that opening that particular door would have led to increased scrutiny and he couldn’t risk them finding out about Ted. It was yet another thing that just the two of them were aware of, and it had to stay that way.

  Recounting the events of the day now, though, brought it all back. When Jamie had first vanished, he’d thought that she’d simply run off for a few days, upset by what she’d found out. But when she’d failed to return, he hadn’t known what to think.

  As the days turned to weeks, and then months, and he saw what it was doing to his parents, he was ashamed. Ashamed of how badly he’d treated them. Watching their pain, and feeling his own, they’d developed a new closeness, one that had never been there before.

  Rather than fade with time, what he had done to Ted increasingly preyed on his mind and the knowledge that it was all due to his greed made him sick.

  Twenty

  Slamming the bedroom door behind her after storming out of the living room and going upstairs, Carrie threw herself on their bed. She was furious. She had worked so damned hard to get here and now it could all be snatched away from her! And Jake couldn’t understand what she was so upset about. He didn’t seem remotely bothered that he couldn’t claim his inheritance until his damned sister showed up. She tried to make herself breath slowly while she stared at the ceiling, hoping it would help her calm down.

  His parents had taken a lot of convincing when he’d told them that they wanted to get married. They didn’t like her, but it was the fact that they wanted to go ahead even though Jamie was missing that they’d seemed to find so offensive.

  She’d wanted to get that ring on her finger as soon as she could, though, so she’d pushed Jake continuously, until he’d agreed that they would go ahead with or without his parents’ permission. What choice did he have? He knew that she could, and would, have told the police about his involvement in Ted’s death if he didn’t. Luckily, the mere threat that they would go ahead anyway had been enough to get them to agree. So, six months after Jamie’s disappearance, they’d finally tied the knot.

  She had to admit, she’d expected to be in for a much longer wait before she saw the benefit of marrying him but his parents getting killed like that had been a stroke of luck. Jake was devastated, of course, and she was playing the part of the bereaved daughter-in-law, but secretly she was elated. At last, she was lady of the manor. People would have to look up to her now, show her the proper respect.

  But now everything was spoiled. It could be years before she got her hands on any money.

  They’d just had another argument about it. He’d changed since Jamie had gone. She’d thought he had more backbone, wanted the same things she did, but he was soft, kept whining about how much he missed his sister. It was all she could do to stop herself blurting out the truth, that his precious sister was gone for good. But she knew that even Jake wouldn’t let that slide, even though he’d end up in prison himself for what he had done to Ted.

  She’d known what she needed to do as soon as the will had been read. Jamie needed to be found. Dead or alive.

  Twenty-One

  Letting himself into his house on the outskirts of town, he slammed the front door harder than he should have, making a picture fall off the wall and smash on the floor. Cursing, he picked it up and carried it to the kitchen, dumping it in the kitchen sink. He was angry at himself. And her. How dare she just waltz back into town and then act as if nothing had happened? And more to the point, how the hell had he just let her?

  He’d known it was her standing outside the station the moment he’d spotted her. He hadn’t known whether she would come back for her sister’s funeral as she’d missed her own parents, but it had always been a possibility.

  She was still stunning, even after all these years. She’d always been slim and he could see that she’d kept her figure and she still kept her gorgeous, dark hair long, hanging half way down her back.

  The anger he still felt towards her had surprised him. It had been years since she’d so unceremoniously walked out of his life and he’d thought that he’d forgiven her, if not forgotten. It had taken a bit of time, but he’d moved on and met someone else. They were long divorced now but he’d believed that that episode of his life had been firmly left in the past.

  Sitting across from her in the coffee shop, he’d wanted to demand answers, but he had his pride so he’d kept quiet. Being close to her again was going to be hard but he’d committed to helping her now and he wo
uld be true to his word. Besides, what he’d told her had been true. He had always thought there was something odd about Jamie’s disappearance, coming so soon as it did after the murder of her fiancé.

  The whole department had been involved in the search, but no trace of her had ever been found. Her abandoned car had been forensically examined, but it had revealed nothing.

  Deciding that he needed to work off some of this frustration, he went upstairs and changed into a pair of dark blue overalls before heading out to the garage. As always, he got a thrill when he switched on the bright overhead lights that revealed his pride and joy: a sea green, 1967 Pontiac GTO.

  He’d discovered it abandoned in a barn during a case a few years before. When he’d contacted the owner of the barn, he’d been happy to sell it to him for a few hundred dollars. When he’d bought it, it had been hardly more than a shell, but over the past few years he had been painstakingly restoring it to its former glory. He’d found that when he was working on it he was able to focus entirely and put all other thoughts from his mind. He needed that oblivion now so, after switching the radio on to the local country and western channel, he closed the door and got to work.

  Twenty-Two

  She’d pretended to be asleep that morning when Jake left, not at all in the mood to deal with him. Once she was sure he was gone, she’d jumped out of bed wanting to get an early start. She needed to dress appropriately for what she had planned so she threw on an old pair of blue jeans, a plain navy blue t-shirt, and some hiking boots.

  Avoiding Kat, she headed downstairs and straight out the front door without even stopping for breakfast. There was a gas station on the way out of town, she would stop there and grab a coffee. Apart from anything else, the task ahead was likely to be quite gruesome and she thought it would probably be best tackled on an empty stomach.

  She’d left her deep in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, so no one was likely to just stumble upon her bones. Even she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to remember exactly where. She’d better remember though, and quick; she had no intention of waiting any longer than she had to for what was rightfully hers.

  After grabbing a coffee, it took her nearly an hour of driving around until she spotted a familiar dirt track. She followed it as far as she could in her car and then stopped when she could go no further.

  Getting out, she went to the trunk and removed the roll of industrial garbage bags and thick gardening gloves she had gathered the night before and slammed the trunk shut. With a quick look around to make sure she was alone, she followed the track further into the forest.

  She remembered that night as if it were yesterday. After finding Jamie by the side of the road near her broken down car, she’d offered her a lift. Despite the argument they’d just had, Jamie had known that if she didn’t accept she could have been stuck there for hours so, reluctantly, she’d gotten in.

  She hadn’t been expecting Carrie to strike her with a blow to the head with the tire iron she kept under the driver’s seat. She’d still been conscious, so she’d hit her again and she’d gone still. It hadn’t been planned, so she’d had to drive for miles until she’d found the dirt track which had led to these woods.

  Jamie had started to come around as she’d dragged her out of the car, so she’d had to hit her a few more times to make sure she wouldn’t wake up again, ever. It had been incredibly hard, backbreaking work dragging her through the forest by her arms until she’d found a spot where she’d been happy that no one would ever find her.

  She’d never expected to have to come back here, but now she had no choice. If she wanted to get her hands on the money, Jamie’s body needed to be found and it wouldn’t be found out here. That’s what the bags were for. She planned on gathering up her bones and then moving them to somewhere where they would quickly be stumbled upon.

  It took a while, but eventually she started getting her bearings and recognizing landmarks: the big stone shaped like a saucer, and the tree that looked like a fork. It had been dark when she’d left her here and she’d made a note of these things so she’d be able to make her way back to the car.

  Finally she came to the place where she’d left her. She didn’t feel squeamish at all. After all this time, the only thing left would be bones. She was sure of that.

  She’d been searching for a quarter of an hour before she started panicking. Where the hell was she? She should have found her by now. Even allowing for the passage of time and interference by wild animals, she should have found some remains.

  Eyes glued to the ground, she kicked long-fallen leaves aside with her boots, stopping occasionally to get a closer look at something that looked promising, but turned out to be nothing. Expanding her search in ever widening circles, her actions became increasingly frantic when she still found no trace of Jamie. She didn’t stop until the sweat on her skin started to cool and she looked up through the tree canopy, and realizing that the sun was going down. Not wanting to get lost out here at night, she reluctantly headed back to her car.

  ***

  Carrie’s mind was racing as she sat, catching her breath, trying not to let the panic overwhelm her. Jamie had been dead when she left her there, she was sure of it. And besides, if she’d still been alive she would have made her way home, and her ass would be in jail right now not here searching the woods. So, that left two explanations. One, she’d not been dead and had managed to somehow move away from where she’d left her and died somewhere else, or the animals had scattered her bones so thoroughly that none remained. Neither scenario was good news for her. How the hell was she going to get her hands on the money now?

  Twenty-Three

  Not again. Belle’s heart sank as she rounded the corner and saw the blue and red flashing lights. There were so many and they reflected in the puddles of water on the streets left after the earlier rain shower, making it appear that the whole street was awash with them. As she drew closer, she could see the yellow police tape cordoning off an alley between two buildings and the press clamouring as they tried to get closer, angry at being held back.

  Seeing a small group of the regular girls standing to one side, she pulled her coat tight around her and hurried over.

  “Another one?” She knew the answer before anyone spoke and her fears were confirmed.

  “Jasmine.” It was Sue who spoke, one of the older ladies who had been working the streets for as long as anyone could remember.

  “Oh, God, no! She was just a kid!” Belle had met her a couple of times. She couldn’t have been more than about seventeen. “Do they think it’s him again?”

  “They haven’t said, but I found her, I saw what he did. It’s the same guy.”

  The rest of the group murmured their agreement. Belle didn’t ask what he’d done; she didn’t need to. This was the eighth working girl to be murdered in the last four months, and always the same way. They were sexually assaulted, their throats slit, and then they were propped up, naked, against a wall. Just thinking about it now made her pull her coat tighter around her. They were all living in fear that they might be next.

  A blinding, bright light suddenly hit her face and she had to hold up her arm to shield her eyes to see. It was one of the cameramen from the press, standing next to one of the female anchors from the local news station.

  “Ladies, did you know the victim?” She didn’t bother waiting for an answer. “Do you feel safe being out here at night?” She shoved her microphone towards them, waiting for an answer.

  Ignoring it, Belle turned and walked away quickly. Blade had spent so long drumming it into her that she must avoid her picture being taken that now it was second nature. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to see her and to be arrested for murder. She’d seen enough; she was done for tonight and if Blade didn’t like it, well, it was just tough. Business would be quiet now anyway, most of the customers scared off by the police presence. She might as well make the most of it and get an early night.

  Twenty-Four

&
nbsp; Kat hadn’t slept very well, tossing and turning most of the night. She’d had vivid dreams in which Finn had featured quite heavily and not always fully clothed. She felt the heat fill her cheeks again as she remembered them.

  Your sister is dead and your niece is missing and you’re having sexy dreams? She was chiding herself as his shadow fell across the table. Feeling as if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t, she felt her cheeks get even brighter as she looked up and found Finn standing there. The smirk he gave her told her that he had noticed her discomfort and seemed to find it amusing.

  “We meet again,” he drawled at her as he took a seat.

  “Hardly surprising, since we agreed we’d meet here,” she snapped, cross with herself for letting him get to her.

  “Yes, but you’re hardly known for doing what you agree to, are you?” he responded, reminding her again of their shared past.

  Taking a deep breath, she ignored the comment and pulled a notebook and pencil out of her purse. “Okay, I was thinking last night that the best thing to do would probably be to go over things from the beginning. I wasn’t here so I don’t know what steps the locals took. That way, we can see if they missed anything or if there’s anything worth going over again.”

  “Hold your horses. I haven’t had any breakfast yet and, if we’re going to do this, I’m not doing it on an empty stomach or in a public place.” He signaled to the waitress. “We’ll have something to eat and then I’ll take you over to the impound yard. We still have the car over there and I thought you might want to take a look.”

  He was right, of course. There was no point going off half-cocked. It was probably best to get a picture of the crime scene in her mind before going into too much detail. “Okay, that makes sense.” Though for some reason, it pained her to admit he was right. “I’ll have what you’re having.”