The Night Is Forever koh-11

by Heather Graham

  He supported himself on one elbow, facing her. “And?”

  “And it was even better than that,” she told him.

  “Oh?”

  “I forgot the world,” she whispered.

  He pulled her back into his arms. The moon shined on.

  They might forget the world when they were together like this, but reality always came back soon enough.

  As if sensing his thoughts she sighed softly. “Nothing compares to a night like this.” She smiled. “Our theory was a good one.”

  “Theories should always be thoroughly proven,” he whispered. “Are you interested in some more fact-checking?”

  Her eyes were absolutely hypnotic and dazzling in the moonlight. “I’ll do my best to oblige,” she said.

  And she did.

  14

  When morning arrived, Olivia was glad they’d enjoyed such an incredible night. And glad that they’d slept in each other’s arms.

  In the morning, Dustin explained that he’d talked to Ellie over at Willis House and that she’d said Coot wanted him to show up for breakfast.

  “Sounds like a plan,” she told Dustin. “The café has a great Sunday brunch. But I wasn’t aware you’d gotten to know old Coot so well.”

  “Can’t say I know him that well,” Dustin responded. “But I’ve spent some time talking to him and he seems like a savvy guy. He watches the people around him. He appears to be an elderly gentleman simply enjoying the beauty of the countryside as his later years slip by. People wouldn’t expect him to be as observant as he really is.”

  “So, we’ll meet Coot for breakfast,” Olivia said.

  Before they left, they let Sammy run around the yard for a while, and Olivia lavished some affection on the dog.

  Delilah called out a greeting to them as they entered the café and indicated that Coot was sitting in a booth toward the rear. They waved to her and slid into the booth with Coot.

  “Morning,” he told them. “I’m just enjoying a ‘Liv’ here. Mighty good coffee. And I’m glad to see you two young people looking so healthy. That was something, what I heard about yesterday morning!”

  “Far too much excitement for a camping trip,” Dustin said.

  Coot shook his head.

  “Could’ve been much worse.” Delilah served some tourists at the counter, then came bustling around to see them. “Why, honey, I am so proud of you!” she said to Dustin. “What you did was amazing.”

  As he lowered his head, Olivia realized that she was loving more and more about the man; he was uncomfortable when people put him on a pedestal. He glanced at her and a little smile came to his lips. “I think we decided that the ‘amazing’ actually went to you,” he whispered.

  She blushed, hoping the others hadn’t heard. Dustin looked up at Delilah. “Honestly, it was nothing more than simple first aid, but thank you, Delilah. I’d love to have a ‘Liv’ this morning.”

  “Me, too,” Olivia said. “And I’d also love your Sunday-morning hash and—oh, Dustin! If you haven’t had them yet, you have to try the cheese grits. They’re the best in the South, I swear.”

  “Well, then, two ‘Livs,’ two orders of corned beef hash and two orders of cheese grits,” Dustin said.

  “Don’t forget the biscuits,” Coot added.

  When Delilah was gone, Dustin turned to Coot and asked softly, “You know something?”

  “Can’t rightly say I know anything,” he said. “But I just figured, what with everything that’s going on, any small thing might be important.”

  Dustin nodded. “Yes, you’re right.”

  Coot glanced at Olivia. “A bunch of those boys from Parsonage House were in here last night, with one of their monitors. I was sitting at a booth reading the paper.” He shook his head sadly. “Aaron is great with those boys but I guess everyone over at the Horse Farm is kind of on the ‘watch and wait’ list.”

  Olivia cringed and stared down at the table. “The monitor was reading a book, not paying much mind to the boys. They were talking about the camping trip.”

  “And they said something,” Dustin said, gently urging Coot to go on.

  “Yeah, they were trying to reconstruct things for themselves,” Coot told them.

  “What did they talk about?”

  “Who was where when. Seems Joey saw you go flying out of the tent when everyone heard the scream. He scrambled out himself. He saw Olivia—and she grabbed Drew and they ran off.”

  “That’s pretty much what happened,” Olivia said.

  “They went on to talk about it, and they said there was one person they didn’t notice until Dustin asked about Aaron. She must’ve been gone for a while, ’cause she came back to the group late,” Coot said.

  “Sandra?” Olivia asked.

  Coot looked at her. “Yeah. How did you know?”

  “She was the only other ‘she’ there.”

  “They didn’t see her crawl out of the tent?” Dustin asked.

  “They might have—they’re not sure. But they’re certain they didn’t see her the whole time. They all mulled it over for a while, but then, of course, they started saying they couldn’t be positive, so they’d best not say anything.”

  “Thanks, Coot.” They all fell silent as Delilah came over with their food.

  “There you go,” she said, setting down the plates, which were garnished with melon and apple slices. “Now you two eat up. I’m glad you ordered big. This isn’t a morning to be snacking on nothing but tomato juice and a few wedges of fruit. The body needs nourishment.”

  “It looks wonderful, and we’re going to enjoy every fattening bite of it,” Olivia assured her.

  “You burn energy like a bird in flight, Liv,” Delilah said. “Speaking of juice—want some?”

  “Sure, juice sounds great,” Olivia replied. “That will make it a bit healthier, right?”

  “That’s exactly what I told Sandra Cheever last night. She said she’d been sitting at the hospital for hours and was going back—but that she had to have something besides hospital food.”

  Coot frowned. “Sandra was here last night? I didn’t see her.”

  “Oh, she came in before you and the boys.” Delilah made a dismissive gesture. “First she says she has to have some good food—then she turns her nose up at my menu, saying I didn’t have healthy choices. Why, I told her to have some juice and a salad and she said I needed fat-free dressings!”

  As she spoke, the door to the café opened again.

  Frank Vine came in. He nodded to the tourists at the counter and walked back to join them in the booth.

  “Strong coffee, Delilah, please,” Frank said as he slid in next to Coot. “Morning, everyone.”

  They all greeted him, and Delilah asked, “That’s it, Frank, just coffee?”

  Frank nodded. When she’d left, Frank looked at all of them.

  He inhaled loudly and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Aaron Bentley is dead,” he told them.

  * * *

  Accident. Like hell.

  Dustin stood in Aaron Bentley’s bathroom, studying the scene.

  Aaron had insisted he get out of the hospital that morning, and he’d been deemed well enough to go home. No problem; a cop had stayed outside his house.

  Then, according to the police officer who’d been watching the house, there was a loud hissing sound and the house seemed to glow and then went dark.

  He’d rushed in. Aaron had been alone in the bathtub, dead. Somehow, he hadn’t had the sense not to place his iPod charger on the back of the commode—next to the tub. It was ridiculous. He’d been saved from drowning only to die in his bathtub—electrocuted.

  Dustin still couldn’t believe the man had died so stupidly. Or that such a death could have been an accident. According to the crime scene tech who’d first escorted him through, Aaron Bentley must have reached for the iPod to change it—but knocked the whole system into the tub. It had been plugged in. Electricity had raced through the water like wildfire.


  There was nothing in the bathroom to suggest that anyone else had been with him. Dustin’s first question, of course, had to do with Sandra Cheever. She’d been so determined that she was going to stay with Aaron. Where the hell had she been?

  According to Sandra—and there were witnesses to verify that it was true—she’d dropped Aaron at home and gone, at his suggestion, to check on things at the Horse Farm. She’d promised to be right back. But by the time she’d returned, the officer on duty had already flown into the house—breaking the lock to get in.

  So, the house had been locked, an officer had been on duty, Sandra had been at the Horse Farm—and Aaron had managed to kill himself in his bathtub.

  He remained in the tub.

  Frank Vine had come to the diner to make the announcement regarding Aaron’s death, then bring Dustin back with him to Aaron’s house.

  * * *

  Dustin hadn’t left Olivia behind. But he hadn’t brought her in here, either. She and Callahan were outside, waiting. There was no reason for her to see a man she worked with and cared about as he was now, naked and scorched, his eyes still open as if they were about to pop out of his skull, an expression of horror on his face. The smell of singed flesh hung all around them like a musky haze.

  “What do you say to this?” Frank asked him.

  “I say he didn’t reach for anything—that someone was here and tossed that charger into the water and electrocuted him.”

  “There’s absolutely no indication that anyone was in here with him,” Frank said.

  “So I hear.”

  “You don’t believe it?”

  “Bring Sandra in for questioning. And, of course, the medical examiner may find something we’re not seeing. Then again, he may not. Why the hell did the idiot have to take a bath?” Dustin muttered. “He made it so damned easy for whoever was here.”

  “He just got out of the hospital. After a camping trip. He was probably trying to relax—hell, why not?” Frank said disgustedly. “There was a sheriff’s car right in front of his house. He must have felt safe and secure.”

  Dustin turned around and stalked out of the bathroom. The sheriff’s department, crime scene people and medical personnel were all still at work. He paused in various rooms of the house, looking around, trying to stay out of everyone’s way. He noticed that the medical examiner was Dr. Wilson.

  Wilson walked straight over to him. He seemed to be glancing around to see if Frank Vine was anywhere near them and satisfied himself that he wasn’t.

  “Horrible business, this,” he said. He lowered his voice. “I have results for you. That dart you brought me. There was a concoction of drugs—some had seeped into the bark. It was a cocktail of stuff, the kind that wouldn’t be found in an autopsy unless specific tests were ordered. The kind that would do a swift number—a real doozy on someone—and then fade quickly away.” He stopped speaking. Dustin turned to see that Frank had come out of the bathroom.

  “It’s all right, Robbie,” he told Dr. Wilson. “You’re not conspiring against me. Agent Blake is working this case with my permission and he’s called in a few coworkers, I believe?”

  Wilson—apparently “Robbie” to Frank Vine—let out a sigh of relief. “Frank, I haven’t seen anything like this in all my years out here. Best to accept any and all help, I’d say.”

  “You might want to remove your corpse,” Frank suggested.

  “I’m going to get the body now,” Wilson said. “At least we know the time of death,” Frank pointed out. “The deputy made a note of it. Not to mention that all the clocks stopped at 10:23 a.m.”

  “I’ll get Aaron down to the morgue and get right on this.” Wilson shook his head wearily. “Hell, twice. Men I liked, men I admired. This is a sad day for all of us.”

  As he returned to the bathroom. Dustin looked at Frank Vine. “I still say you bring Sandra in.”

  “There were witnesses who saw her when this happened,” Frank argued. “She was nowhere near the house.”

  “She still might know something. See if Aaron was talking about having anyone over, or if he said anything to her about what he planned to do,” Dustin said. “We’ve got to shake this up, Frank. There could be other victims.”

  “You coming down to the station?” Frank asked him.

  Dustin nodded.

  “What about Olivia?”

  “I’m not letting her out of my sight,” Dustin replied.

  Vine didn’t protest; he just nodded. “All right. I’ll have her brought in.”

  “Have your men checked whether there’s any sign of forced entry?” Dustin asked. “Windows?”

  “None.”

  “Is there a back door?”

  “Yes.”

  Dustin walked toward it. He used a paper towel he grabbed from the kitchen to check it. There was no bolt, only a push lock, the kind you could depress as you were leaving and the door would lock behind you.

  “Someone could have left this way,” Dustin told Frank, who’d come with him.

  “Yeah, they could have left this way, but how would they have gotten in?”

  “With a key.”

  “Not Sandra. An officer followed them from the hospital. She let him off, waved to the deputy watching the house and drove away before Aaron even went inside.”

  “That doesn’t mean someone else wasn’t already in the house,” Dustin said.

  Disposing of the paper towel, Dustin walked outside. Olivia was leaning against the car; Deputy Jimmy Callahan stood next to her, arms crossed over his chest, looking vigilant. When he saw Dustin, he nodded and walked into the house to talk to Frank.

  Olivia gazed mutely at Dustin, her eyes beseeching him to tell her it wasn’t true.

  She knew it was.

  She didn’t cry. Her face, though, was pinched and tight. She was in shock, he thought. Two men she’d worked closely with, two men she saw almost every day, were dead. He wanted to tell her to cry, that it was all right.

  But she spoke before he could.

  “Have they informed the others yet?” she asked.

  “I think someone from the sheriff’s department was calling—trying to reach the Horse Farm to let Sydney and Drew know what happened. I’m sure they’ll try to contact Mason and Mariah, too. They’re going to pick up Sandra now.” He indicated a news van down the street, held back by an officer in uniform. “The media have picked up on it. The police always try to make the first notification.”

  “Of course. It’s dreadful to hear that something horrible has happened to someone you know via the TV or radio or— They’re going to pick up Sandra? Why? Sandra wasn’t even with Aaron when he...died....”

  “They have to rattle some cages. They’ll start interviewing everyone now, wanting to know where they were every second.”

  She nodded. “I’d like to go to the Horse Farm. I just want... I want to tell Sydney and Drew that we’ll do everything in our power.... That we’ll hang in there.” She looked at him. “Dustin, if someone wanted the Horse Farm—I’m the next person in line.”

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  “So people can’t be dying for the Horse Farm—I mean, there is no Horse Farm if we don’t have any clients. Any guests.”

  “I know.” Dustin looked straight ahead as he drove, hardly able to bear her stoicism, her emotional restraint. He knew she had to be suffering and understood that she wasn’t ready to express her grief.

  When they reached the Horse Farm, Olivia sighed audibly.

  Drew and Sydney had dragged a couple of feed crates out front. They sat on them—both cradling shotguns as they squinted down the road.

  Olivia hopped out of the car and approached them. “What the hell are you two doing?” she demanded.

  “You heard, right?” Sydney asked her thickly. “Aaron—he’s dead.”

  “In the bathtub,” Drew said. “Electrocuted. They’re saying it was an accident.”

  “Accident?” Sydney snorted. “Accident, my ass. We should’ve been li
stening to you a lot earlier, Olivia.”

  “You saved the poor bastard’s life,” Drew said, shaking his head at Dustin. “And then he goes and takes a bath!”

  “Who knew bathing could be lethal?” Sydney said dully.

  Olivia set a hand on his shoulder. “We’re all so sorry,” she said. “I’m going to miss him so much.”

  “What’s going to happen now?” Sydney asked.

  “We’ll—we’ll just go on. Somehow, we’ll go on. I’m going to get out a press release saying that we’re closed—in mourning. We’ll reopen in a few weeks,” Olivia said.

  “Horses have to eat,” Drew mumbled. “I can manage, though. And if you need financial help...”

  “Thank you.” She gave him a shaky smile. “But I think our operating sheets are pretty good. We can maintain the place for a few months without digging into anyone’s personal funds and if it comes to that—well, we’ll figure it out.” Olivia cleared her throat. “I don’t think the two of you need to sit here with shotguns.”

  “Yeah. We just need to stay out of bathtubs,” Drew said.

  “And out of the woods,” Sydney added.

  “Duck flying needles,” Drew muttered.

  “And darts,” Sydney agreed.

  “I have people coming in this afternoon,” Dustin told him. “We’ll get someone to stay here at the Horse Farm. I don’t think either of you is a target, though.”

  “Maybe someone wanted to kill Marcus to get this place, except that doesn’t make sense because of all the trusts and the nonprofit and...” Sydney’s voice trailed off. He shook his head and began again. “If there had been someone who wanted Marcus dead, logically it would’ve been Aaron. But now Aaron’s dead, and next in line is Olivia...and...”

  “Is Liv a target now?” Drew asked bluntly.

  “Maybe. But you don’t need to worry unduly. Some people will believe that what happened to Aaron was an accident. He was alone in his house—there was a deputy stationed outside it,” Dustin explained.

  “We had to go through this twice—thinking he died,” Drew said. “That isn’t fair.” He glanced at Dustin with a look of resignation on his face. “He’s really dead this time, huh?”