by Renee George
Her reaction was similar to mine. “We just saw him yesterday. He came in for lunch. How can it be Ed?” She gripped my wrist. “How could I have missed it? What good is it for me to have a psychic gift when I can’t even use it to save my friends?”
“This isn’t your fault, sweetheart,” Babe said. He massaged her shoulders, and she slumped back against him, drawing comfort from her husband.
“Babe’s right, Sunny. This isn’t your fault.”
An infant’s cry from the other room brought us all to attention.
“Shoot,” Sunny said, the front of her shirt darkened as her nipple fountains exploded. “I left Jude in the living room when we came in. He’d been sleeping so soundly.” She looked down at her blouse. “I packed a clean one in the diaper bag.”
“And nipple pads, I hope.”
“Being a mother has its perks and its drawbacks,” she said. Babe went with her into the other room, leaving Billy Bob and me alone.
“You holding up?” he asked, careful to keep to his side of the island.
I nodded. Why had he kissed me earlier? Had he felt sorry for me? Remembering his hands kneading my back, his lips seeking mine, his tongue exploring my tonsils, I knew the passion hadn’t been one sided. “Should we talk about what happened?”
“Not now,” he said.
Well, motherfuck! Seriously? “Cool,” I said. “Actually, we don’t ever have to talk about it. Let’s pretend like it never happened. As a matter of fact…” I shook my head. “…I just scrubbed it from my brain. We’re good.”
“Chavvah.” He made my name sound like a warning.
Sunny and Babe came back into the kitchen and saved me from more humiliation.
“Can you guys take me home?” I glanced at the now glowering Billy Bob. “We need to get the restaurant figured out, or we need to ask Blondina to cover the food for the council meeting. Either way, there is a lot to do.” I didn’t add that I desperately wanted to get out of sight of a certain asshole werewolf who kept sending me mixed signals.
Billy Bob interceded. “I think you should stay here, Chavvah.”
“Not happening, Doc.” I sounded terse and emotional. Why wouldn’t he just let me have what was left of my tattered dignity?
“At least, let me examine your back before you go. A few of those cuts were pretty deep.”
“You were hurt?” Babe said with a pinch of alarm. “Doctor Smith didn’t say that you were attacked.” It was my younger brother’s turn to glower.
“I threw myself out of the guest bedroom window last night.” And I didn’t want to fucking talk about it. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain later. Right now, I want to go.” For emphasis, I added, “Please.”
Sunny took me by the arm, her hand just above the scar on my elbow. “Give me some of that famous salve of yours, Billy Bob. I’ll get Chavvah taken care of when we get back to the cabin.”
“No,” he said. “I’ll examine her before she goes.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” I told him as if we were five-year-olds.
“I am your doctor. The laceration in your lower back needs a second look. I want to make sure it’s healing well before you go.”
He knew I was a shifter and that I would heal better than any human with a cut. I looked at his face and gauged his stubborn expression. Damn it. He wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer, but I’d be damned if I gave him a “yes.” I didn’t want to be alone with him right now.
“Chavvie, just let him take a look.”
“Fine,” I huffed. I yanked my shirt over my head and turned my back to Billy Bob. I was wearing a bra, but Babe still turned around to face the living room. Sunny walked around the backside of me to see how bad I’d been injured.
“It looks decent,” she said brightly. “Already scabbing up.”
I didn’t wait for the doc’s verdict. I grabbed my shirt off the center island. “Let’s get on out of here.”
“Thank you, Billy Bob,” I heard Sunny say when I was halfway to the front door. “I appreciate you taking such good care of Chav last night.” I glanced back in time to see her go up on her tip-toes and kiss his cheek. She said something too quietly for me to hear, but he gave her a quick nod then went back into the kitchen and out of sight.
Chapter 5
“I really don’t know what more I can tell you, Sheriff.” I let out a frustrated sigh. It was a bit after nine in the morning, and I’d felt as if I’d been there for decades. “Other than his fight with Mike Wares, nothing suspicious happened.” Sheriff Taylor had called me shortly after Sunny, Babe, and I got back to their cabin around six a.m. After he’d insisted that I come down to give a statement, I showered while Sunny took care of calling Jo Jo to tell him to take the day off. Even still, I’d made good time getting to the sheriff’s station.
Sheriff Taylor pinched the bridge of his nose. “Chavvah, it hurts nothing to go over what happened last night. Or yesterday in the restaurant for that matter. So Mike said he’d see Ed rot? Did you feel like it was a genuine threat?” I’d told him all about Mike and his threats in the restaurant now that I knew the victim might be Ed, and we’d rehashed it a gazillion million times.
“I don’t know. Mike’s a hot head. We all know that. I’d be surprised if Ed were the only person he fought with yesterday.” Even so, I found it hard to believe the bear shifter had skinned someone alive and sliced his throat. That wasn’t a skill you learned by accident. “Have you ever heard of Mike being cruel to animals?
Sheriff Taylor shook his head, but out loud, he said, “Did anyone else suspicious come in? Did you notice anything else wrong before you tripped over…” He paused. I could see the weariness and grief in his downturned mouth and heavy-lidded eyes. “It’s okay,” he finally said. “I just hoped…”
I patted his hand when he put it on his desk. “I’ll keep trying to remember something. I promise.” I steeled my courage to say the next part. “I’m assuming you sent someone over to Ruth and Ed’s last night.”
He nodded his head.
“And?”
“And Ed was called to tow a broken-down truck in from Lake Ozark last night. He got the call around five-thirty, left near six, and Ruth hasn’t had contact with him since. He left his cell phone in the garage. Ruth says he does that sometimes.”
“Did you tell her about…?”
“Yes,” Sheriff Taylor said. “She’s a hard lady to keep secrets from.”
He wasn’t kidding. Ruth could get me to spill just about anything. Twenty years as a parent to seven kids had taught her a trick or two. “You should tell Tyler. It isn’t right for him to accidentally overhear his father might be, you know, through cop gossip.”
“Ruth has asked that I keep it under wraps until we’re certain the body is Ed’s. I’m going to take her to Dr. Smith’s this afternoon. She insisted on going for a viewing, even though I’m not sure there’s anything left of him that’s identifiable other than his teeth.”
“I’ll go with you. She’ll need support during this, and I’ve already seen more than anyone else should. Still, however, this works out, Deputy Thompson is not going to thank you for keeping him in the dark.”
“I know.” He shook his head, the dark circles around his eyes more prominent than I’d ever seen. “But it’s my call. Right now, the only people who know it might be Ed is Doc Smith, Mark Smart, you…though the doc shouldn’t have told you…and me. I didn’t even tell Farraday, so there will be no talking about it.”
I kept it to myself that Babe and Sunny also knew. “Things like this don’t stay secret for long, Sheriff.” I stood up. “I’m going to Ruth’s house. I’ll see you in a little bit.”
He hadn’t told me I could go, but he hadn’t told me I couldn’t either. In a way, I think he was grateful to share the burden of Ruth with someone else. I opened the door to his office and quickly found Tyler in the bullpen talking to the handsome man from the diner, Dominic Tartan. The one I’d made a lunch date with. I ten
sed when the man noticed me and smiled. The joy zinged right to his eyes, and I’ll admit that I was charmed. Behind him were the other two men who’d ordered lunch with him. Hans Something-Or-Another and Randy Lowry. Randy smiled as well. However, Hans didn’t seem to notice me.
“Chavvah,” he said as he and Tyler approached. “How are you?” He asked it in a congenial, I have no idea you tripped over a dead body and had to spend the night locked down with a man that constantly raised your ire, way.
“Fine.” I nodded. “Dominic, right?”
“Call me Dom. I’m pleased you remembered.” His green gaze met mine. “We’re still on for Sunday, right?”
I wanted to tell him “no,” but I would’ve had to explain why, and I wanted to explain even less than I wanted to back out of our lunch date. “Sure.” I gave him a tight-lipped smile because it was all I could muster under the circumstances.
A woman sashayed into the Sheriff’s office. She had curves for days and fiery red hair to go with her fiery expression. She raised an eyebrow at Dom and his cohorts.
“Well?” she asked.
“Wilhelmina,” the Hans guy said, his voice slightly accented. “I told you we’d take care of this.”
“Look,” she said, snapping her fingers at him. “Jerry might not have been a peach, but he wouldn’t take off without a word.”
“Who?” I asked.
Randy Lowry moved closer to me. “You definitely don’t want to get in the middle of this,” he said conspiratorially. He pointed to the redhead. “That’s Willy Boden. Hans’s sister. She’s security for the therian council, and that hair isn’t just window dressing. She has a hot temper. Jerry Blackwell is her sometimes boyfriend and fellow delegate from the Kansas group. They represent the Felidae of their state.”
“Feel-a-day?”
“Felidae,” he said again. “Big cats. In their case, pumas.”
“Ah.” In other words, mountain lion shifters like Rose Ann Corman, Jo Jo’s mother, had been. “She seems pretty peeved.”
“Apparently, Jerry took off the day we arrived and hasn’t been back.”
A shiver rippled through me. “Three days ago?” Why were they just reporting it now?
“He and Willy got into a huge fight,” he explained without me asking.
“Hmm.” I pursed my lips then looked at him. His brown eyes were full of mirth. “Why are you telling me all this?”
He smiled, his brown eyes glittering with intensity. “I like having a reason to talk to you.”
“Oh.” I blushed.
“I only wished I’d been quicker than Dom in asking you out.” He nudged me familiarly. “Watch out for that one. From what I hear, he never stays in one place too long or with any one girl.”
“You really are straight forward.” And slick, like Dom, in his own way. I bit my lip nervously. I hadn’t been flirted with by any man in a long time, and now I had two flirting hardcore.
“Life’s too short. I believe in pursuing something when I really want it.”
I think I must have looked like a deer in the headlights because he suddenly laughed. “Have a nice day, Ms. Trimmel. It was a pleasure to see you again.”
“Uh huh.” I gave him a crisp wave. “I’ve got to go. See you around.”
He flashed a brilliant smile. “Count on it.”
I nodded to Farraday and Connelly, who sat at their desks typing up reports or something to that effect, as I passed by. Before I got to the exit, a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I turned to see Tyler Thompson.
“You okay, Chav?” He and my brother Judah had been best friends at one time until they had a falling out. Which meant, eventually, I would forgive him for being uncharitable to Sunny when she’d arrived in town. He’d been a dick because he was afraid she’d expose a secret affair between his mother and Judah with her psychic visions. An affair that never happened, I might add. It had made me so angry when I’d found out, but as I stared at him now, all I could feel was pity.
“I am,” I told him. “Have you been by to see your mom today?”
“No.” He gave me a puzzled look. “Why?”
“No reason. I’ll talk to you later.” And without waiting for his response, I made a hasty exit.
* * * *
It was almost ten a.m. when I wandered up to Ruth’s yard. The Thompson’s two-story home was just on the other side of their garage. The yard was neatly trimmed and green from all the frequent rain storms we’d had in June. The border up the driveway was lush with purple irises and orange tiger lilies. Bright fuschia peonies added more splashes of color. Near the mailbox was a large wisteria bush, and the day's heat had the sweet odor clinging to the air. The splendor only added to my trepidation. I didn’t want to do this, be the one who comforted Ruth in her time of need. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to hold up for her.
Buck up, I told myself. I didn’t have to be strong. I just had to pretend to be long enough to help my friend. Ruth had been there for me after my rescue, and I’d been damned if I would allow myself to act like a coward.
The screen door banged open, and a small tawny-haired boy ran out the door. He nearly ran me down as he passed. “Linus!” I said.
He turned his head back to look at me, a cheeky smile on his face. “Gotta go, Aunt Chav. He shook a handful of coins in his pants pocket. “Mom said I could go down to Riverfront Street. They got some carnival booths set up with games.” He was small for his age, only eight-years-old now, and I wished I could freeze-frame the look of joy on his sweet face.
I smiled at him. “Go on then.”
He rose up on his tip-toes in a quick moment of triumph and took off down the street in a sprint. My stomach hurt. I almost turned around and headed out as well. Why was this happening to such good people?
I shook my head as I thought the question. Bad people did bad things to good people all the time. Being good didn’t make a person immune to evil. Shivering, I rubbed my upper arms. This murder had been evil like I’d never seen, and I’d seen more than my fair share.
I stared at the screen door. Linus hadn’t closed the main one. There was a light on, and I heard a soft whimper. Ruth. My heart broke even more. I lifted my shoulders and straightened my back, and by making myself place one foot in front of the other, I headed toward the house.
When I got the screen, I opened the door and said, “Ruth.” I stepped inside and let the door close behind me. “Ruth. It’s Chavvah.”
She appeared in the hall by the living room, her eyes and nose both red, her usually flawless skin, blotchy. She sniffled. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to be here for you.”
She looked at me, mild surprise in her grieved expression. “Who told you?”
Oh, God. She didn’t know I’d been the one to find the body. How much had Sheriff Taylor told Ruth? “Are all the kids out? I just passed Linus.”
She nodded. “Dakota and Michele are with my parents in Branson for the day. The rest are down on Riverfront Street for the Jubilee. I already texted Emma Ray and told her to keep an eye out for Linus.” She sat on the arm of the divan, her delicate features making her appear fragile, but I knew she wasn’t.
Ruth Thompson was one of the strongest women I knew.
“I found the…” I shook my head and tried again. “It happened at the restaurant after closing last night. I found … I went outside to take the trash and … I wish the sheriff would have told you.”
She gulped, her head bobbing as if nodding agreement. “Do you think it’s him?”
I shrugged, the gesture wholly inadequate for the situation. A sweet smell wafted in from the kitchen. It had a strange but familiar bite to it. “What is that?”
“What?”
“The smell?” I followed the scent into the kitchen. Ruth made her family breakfast every morning. I know, because I often joined them. The room always smelled of home cooking. Not today. Instead, it was the spicy, sweet, and pungent scent I’d smelled the night before. I let
my coyote slip forward and inhaled deeply. Strangely, my senses seemed sharper, more acute and I nearly gagged as the scent-memory took me back to the scene of the murder.
“Chavvah, tell me what you’re trailing?” As a deer shifter, Ruth’s olfactory senses weren’t as developed as mine, but how could she not smell this?
I spotted a clear jar filled with what looked like wood chips about the color of raw almonds. “What is that?”
“Sassafras root,” she said. “Why?”
“I smelled it, Ruth.” My skin tightened with a shiver. “At the restaurant last night. I smelled this.” Even over the scent of exposed flesh and blood. Although, I didn’t say so. Was it significant? Did this prove the dead man was Ed? Had he chewed it before he’d been killed? Had the aroma come from his mouth?
“Butch won it this morning from one of the carnival games. The street fair opened up around eight today. He brought it home and then grabbed his brother and sisters to go back. Except for Linus.”
“Then Ed wouldn’t have eaten it last night?”
“Ed doesn’t even like root beer, let alone sassafras. He says it’s too much like licorice.” She put her hand to her mouth. “Ed didn’t like it.” Her creamy complexion turned a milky white as the blood drained from her face.
“Sit down,” I told her. I pulled out a chair from the table. “We don’t know it’s him.”
“In all the years we’ve been married, he has never not come home and never not called if he was going to be late. This isn’t like him, Chav.” A choking sob rose in her throat. “I can’t lose him. I just can’t.”
A kick at the door had us both turning to the noise. A man stood on the other side of the kitchen screen door, scraping debris off his boots onto a mud mat. He lifted his head and pushed his way inside. “Can’t lose who, Ruthie? Did something happen to one of the kids?”
My throat grew thick. Ruth jumped up, knocking her chair off its legs. “Ed!” she shouted. Relief, disbelief, joy—and just a touch of anger—colored her voice. She launched herself into his arms and kissed him hard, intimate. I tried to fight the grin on my face but gave up after Ed’s arms wrapped around her, and they both decided they were the only two people in the room.