by Jet MacLeod
Reagan could only hope that Grace was beyond that, now. Reagan could remember Grace’s words and actions at the dinner with Grace’s family. She knew that Grace was just being nice to her when it came to the break in at the house. She knew that Grace only did what Grace had done just to humor Reagan and try and make her go away. Reagan knew that Grace only let Reagan spend the night that night because Reagan was scared shitless and Grace knew that her conscience would get the better of her if she didn’t.
Reagan couldn’t believe the amount of powder and dust that was left at her house after the investigators had left. She had spent the better part of her afternoon dealing with the cleanup of her house. She wasn’t too pleased with the mess but Reagan decided that it was a necessary evil considering everything that had happened. She wanted to feel safe in her home again and she was glad to know that Grace was only a little ways a way but she didn’t feel totally safe.
Reagan stepped out onto the balcony off of her bedroom and looked out at the lake. The setting sun was a magnificent site. She looked around the waterscape and saw Grace relaxing on her deck. She watched her for a while, trying to decide if she should invite Grace over like for dinner or something as payment for the help from the other night. Just when Reagan got her nerve up enough to go over and ask Grace to come over, Grace got in her boat and left the cove.
Reagan shook her head in dismay and went back into the house. She decided to make dinner for herself and read a book. She would try to forget everything in her books. It was her escape from reality. She called Leigh at the bar and told her that she would be on her own at the bar for a while. Reagan needed a break from it all. She was going to lose herself in her books.
She was disappointed that Grace had ridden off, but Reagan had to admit that she had no claim to Grace. Reagan had to make herself try and not fall for Grace, again. It was all too much for her. Grace comes back into her life and now, with everything that happened, Grace had come back to her. Reagan didn’t like hero worship but she liked the look of Grace. Reagan couldn’t shake that or the feelings that she was having when she was around Grace.
Reagan finished her dinner and sat on her balcony with her feet propped up on the railing. She curled up into her Adirondack chair and pulled out her latest bought novel. Reagan barely looked up over the pages of the book as she heard Gracie bringing the boat back into the cove and parked it at her deck extending from Grace’s yard into the lake.
Grace saw Reagan sitting on her balcony reading her book. Grace wanted to go ask Reagan if she was alright and if she had called the alarm system company yet, but something was stopping her. Grace couldn’t figure out what it was but she couldn’t make herself go talk to Regan. There was something inside Grace that made her move across her dock and towards Reagan’s house and it wasn’t because Grace wanted to do so.
Grace caught herself in Reagan’s yard, looking up at her. Reagan must have sensed her presence because she put down the book and laid it on the table near her. She sat forward and glanced down from the balcony at Grace. They looked at each other and wondered about the sadness in the other’s eyes. Grace tore herself from Reagan’s glance and turned toward her own house. She was starting to walk away from there when Reagan spoke up.
“Grace?” Reagan asked, almost as a whisper, but loud enough for Gracie to hear it.
Grace turned and looked up at Reagan, again. She was unsure what to do, then. She knew that she better answer Reagan if she didn’t want to look foolish or crass towards Reagan. Grace looked at the ground and then back at Reagan. Her tongue felt heavy and thick. She was afraid to say anything to her but she knew she had to say something.
“Yes?” Grace finally answered, deciding on something short and sweet.
“Are you well?”
“Yes, and you?” Grace asked.
“I am fine. I just decided that it was a nice afternoon to read a book outside in the setting sun, but now, I think I should turn in because it is getting to be too dark. I see that you enjoyed the water this afternoon. Did you have a good ride?” Reagan asked.
“You could say that,” Gracie answered.
“Oh. Well, have you eaten? I have some leftovers if you want something,” Reagan offered.
“No, thanks, I’m good. I need to go. I’ll see you later. Thanks for the invite, again; I might hit you up on that offer sometime later. I am beat,” Grace said walking back towards her house.
She knew that she had lied to Reagan, but she couldn’t bring herself to enter into Reagan’s house. At least not yet, especially when she didn’t know how she felt about Reagan. She told herself that it was easier for her to hate Reagan, but not hate Reagan as a victim. Grace looked at her in a new light, but what light that was eluded Grace.
She looked back at Reagan’s house as she entered her own. She shook her head at herself for being a coward. Grace knew that she was being stupid but she couldn’t help herself.
“What the hell am I doing?” Grace asked herself out loud.
Grace walked into her living room and sat on the couch. She turned on the TV and flipped through the channels as she watched the darkness come over the lake. She watched the night roll in across the water as the colorful pictures danced over the TV screen.
Grace found herself on her couch vegged out in front her TV, asleep when the phone woke her. It took Grace a few minutes to get her bearings straight and realize that it was the phone that was ringing. Grace looked over at the coffee table hoping that the phone was laying there within easy reach for her. It wasn’t. She stood up and walked into the kitchen to get it, hoping that whoever it was wouldn’t hang up by the time that she got to it.
“Hello,” Grace said into the receiver answering the phone.
“Grace?”
“Yes?” Grace asked.
“Hey, it’s Reagan. Can you do me a favor? Please?”
“What is it?” Grace asked, immediately wishing she hadn’t.
“Will you come over here and stay with me for a while? I still don’t feel comfortable here, alone. I’ll make you something to eat or whatever you want, please,” Reagan begged.
Grace didn’t know whether it was the sound of her voice or the thought of Reagan alone in that big ol’ house by herself, scared shitless, that made her answer. She knew she would do it. She knew that she would do anything that Reagan wanted her to because of the tone in her voice.
“You still haven’t called the alarm company, have you?” Grace asked.
“No,” Reagan replied.
“Alright, I’ll come over there for a little while,” Grace complied.
“Thank you. Thank you for everything, Gracie. The back door will be open,” Regan said, “Just yell as you come in.”
Chapter Ten
Grace woke up on the couch in Reagan’s living room. She couldn’t remember falling asleep there, but it was obvious that she had. She sat up and looked around to see if she could see Reagan, but she couldn’t. Reagan was nowhere in sight. Grace decided that a quick and efficient exit was her only means of escape. She didn’t want to be there when Reagan decided to come downstairs or into the room.
Grace didn’t want to get involved with Reagan. Grace was still trying to figure out what she was going to do with herself now that she was back in the Columbia area. She had been back for four months now and still was trying to make it on her own. She didn’t want to be dependent on a lover.
Gracie shook her head at the thought that she would take Reagan as a lover. She laughed at herself, because she knew that she might do it if she had the chance. It was something that she didn’t want because of the “knight-in-shining-armor” effect that happens to some victims. She didn’t want any relationship that she would have with Reagan to be based upon any reasons that could be stemmed from the night that Grace came to Reagan’s rescue.
Reagan came down the stairs. She stopped at the landing and looked down at Gracie. Reagan could tell that something was weighing heavy on Grace’s mind by the way that Gra
ce sat on the couch. She looked as if she wanted to bolt right out the door. Reagan couldn’t blame her.
Reagan couldn’t help but feel awkward with Gracie in her house and sleeping on her couch. Reagan had to admit that she was glad the Grace came over but she wished… She didn’t know what she wished for, but she was sure that it wasn’t Gracie spending the night cramped on her couch. She didn’t know what she would say to Grace when she got downstairs, but she knew that she needed to thank her for spending the night.
“Grace?” Reagan called down the stairs and Grace winced knowing she couldn’t escape.
“Yes?”
“Do you want some breakfast?”
“No, I am good. Thanks for offering, but I need to go. I have to get to work.”
“Sure?” Reagan questioned.
“Yeah, I really need to go.”
“Ok, thank you for staying here last night. That was the first time in a long time that I have slept the whole night through. You don’t know what that means to me. I don’t know how to thank you for everything that you have done for me,” Reagan said.
“Don’t worry about it. It is all cool. Just get you a dog or something, it will help,” Grace suggested.
Reagan went into the kitchen. She was getting stuff together so that she could make herself something for breakfast. She was watching Grace. Grace was watching her.
“Reagan,” Grace whispered.
Grace looked at Reagan. It was eating her up that she couldn’t want Reagan in her mind, even though her heart was begging for the release. Grace wanted to touch her. Grace wanted to hold her. Grace wanted to protect Reagan from anything and everything, and that face scared her completely. She stared at Reagan.
“Reagan,” Grace said.
Reagan’s head popped up from the bowl of eggs that she was stirring, “Yes?”
“I’ll come over later. Okay? Or, you can come over and I’ll make you dinner. I just can’t stay for breakfast. I am sorry,” Grace stated.
“That sounds good. I would love a ride on your boat around sundown, if you make it back in time. I love the water, but I don’t have my own boat,” Reagan said pushing Grace.
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll call you at your office before I leave work and we’ll plan a menu for dinner. A spin on the water in the boat sounds like fun, so yeah, we’ll take a spin,” Grace answered, “but, I have to go for now.”
“I’ll see you later.”
Grace resisted the urge to walk into the kitchen and kiss Reagan goodbye. She walked out the door, her mind racing with want. She hiked back to her house and ran up the stairs of her deck into the house. She raced through the house into her bathroom and took a cold shower.
Grace walked into the squad room. She saw Frenchy and Danica sitting at the table discussing a case. There was file sitting in front of them, open. Pictures were scattered across the table. The case board, a marker board that they hashed things out on, was starting to fill up and the case didn’t look to be more than three hours old.
“Good, you’re here,” Danica said as Grace walked up to them.
“Come again?”
“I paged you four hours ago. It’s ‘bout time you got here. What happened?”
“Nothing, Cap. Sorry. I didn’t have my pager with me,” Grace said touching her side and then realizing that she didn’t have it, still, “I must have left it.”
“Looks that way,” Frenchy said.
“So, what’s up?”
“Rape and murder, one subject, lots of blood and no sperm, that is what we got. This guy is smarter than the average bear. He knows what he is doing and I have a feeling that it isn’t his first rape,” Frenchy told her.
“Great, there is goes another peaceful lunch,” Gracie said.
“Right, you two, get over there and take a look at it. I don’t want any surprised from the news this time. I want a clean investigation and I want to be able to tell the DA that he can nail the Sonuvabitch to the wall, got me?” Danica asked.
“Got you,” they both answered.
“ Good, now, go and have fun catching the bad guy, kids.”
Frenchy drove the squad car to the scene. Grace knew that it was going to be a long day now that they had an ugly case like this one. She much preferred the “he said/she said” cases because they were usually cut and dry and she could write a report and be done with it. A case like the one she was about to start would take days or longer to solve and she hated that. She hated the suspense of what was going to happen next when it came to cases. She wanted to catch the guy in the act. It made things simpler and a lot easier to testify about in court.
“This looks like it could be messy,” French said as the pulled up into the drive.
“Where are we?” Grace asked.
“You were riding with me, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, but I zoned out. Wasn’t paying attention to what was passing by the window. I was reading over the on scene’s notes,” Grace answered.
“Well, we are in your neck of the woods. I would say that your house is in the direction across the lake. We’re in the Waterfront Terrace subdivision.”
“Great,” Grace mumbled under her breath and said louder, “I am going to look around out back and see what I can find.”
“Okay, I’ll check inside.”
Grace stepped around the house and noted that there was no fence. She looked to see where the nearest house was and it was over five hundred feet away. No luck there, she thought to herself. She wondered down to the waterfront. There was something that didn’t feel right about the water front. There was no dock, no entry point, just about a six inch drop into the water. She saw some mud in the grass, but she wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Frenchy came out the back door of the house and called out to her.
“Got lots of blood in here. This guy was pretty angry with her about something. Knife wounds, too personal and the amount, too pissed off to care about the over kill. What you got there?”
“Mud.”
“Mud?”
“Yup, it could be a foot print, but it is just a foot size amount of red clay mud from the lake. Any mud in the house?” Grace asked.
“Plenty in the kitchen. Near the door, but there are water shoes there with mud on them, too.”
“Damn. Got anything else?”
“Not really, you?”
“Nope, but I am taking this as evidence. Never can tell sometimes.”
“Okay, I’ll go get the kit.”
Chapter Eleven
Grace was sitting at her desk writing down all of her notes for the new case when her desk phone rang. She debated for about three rings about answering it before she answered it. She picked up the phone was surprised hear her mother on the line.
“Gracie, dear, is it true that someone was killed in Terrace. That is only like two coves over from the lake house,” Brianna said.
“Yes, Mum, but that is all I can say and you know it.”
“I know, but you know how the rumor mill is around the lake. I hope it wasn’t anyone I know. Can you at least tell me that?’
“Now, Mum, you know that I can’t. You’ll just have to wait, like everyone else. I am sorry but I can’t release anything until my captain is ready for it. You will hear about it as soon as the rest of the world does, I promise you. Now, Mum, if you don’t mind, I have to go. I need to solve this case, okay?” Gracie asked.
“Fine, gurl, but you better call me as soon as you can tell me something. I don’t want to read about it in the papers tomorrow. Got me, gurl?”
“Aye, Mum, I understand. Now, I have to go.”
“Go on, gurl, but you better call your ol’ Mum and let her know that you are alive and well every now and again. It wouldn’t hurt, you know. Why don’t you come over for dinner soon, too?” Brianna asked her daughter.
“Mum, if Da is up to something, I promise you that last time would be tame to what I will do this time if I do come for dinner,” Grace told her mother.
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br /> “No, darling, he swore he would never mix business and family, again.”
“How’d you get him to do that?’
“I threatened his neck. He is mightily attached to it and is happy with it where it is. He didn’t want to lose it, get me, gurl.”
“I got you, Mum. Don’t hurt ‘em. I don’t want to have to arrest you.”
“I wouldn’t let you. But, anyway, get back to your work, gurl. Just call us sometime.”
Gracie hung up the phone, shaking her head. She could have sworn that she didn’t give her mother the number to her desk, but she knew how resourceful her mother was when she wanted something. Gracie could only guess where her mother got her information regarding the case and the murdered woman, but she knew that her mother wouldn’t wait for the papers or the news. Brianna would try to get it out of her somehow, dinner was just another ploy.
Grace pulled out her note pad and began to transfer some of her field notes into the case files. She started making her own judgments and thoughts and added those to the notes as well. She wanted everything that she could think to be in there, just in case, they didn’t solve the case quickly. She wanted something in there that would jog her memory when she came back to the case later, if need be.
Grace sighed as her phone rang, again. Without thinking, she picked it up and answered it. She didn’t even wait for the other person to say anything.
“Mum, I told you I wasn’t going to tell you so hang up and don’t call back.”
“Well, okay, daughter, I will,” Danica said on the other end of the line.
“Sorry, Cap. What’s up? Got a break, someone confess?” Grace asked.
“No. That would be too easy. I want you to meet me in my office. I have something for you. I think you might like it.”
“Gonna give me a hint, Cap?” Gracie asked.
“Nope, just get in here.”
Grace hung up the phone. She gathered her notes and headed for Danica’s office. She knocked on Danica’s office door and waited for Danica to acknowledge her to enter before she did.