Crap. “Yes.”
“And Sophie Lipscomb went speed dating.”
That wasn’t phrased as a question, but I answered anyway. “Yes.”
“So you decided to go speed dating because you think one of these guys is a killer?”
“Yes.”
Eliot was quiet for a beat and then he exploded. “Are you out of your mind?” His hands were on my shoulders and he was shaking me when Carly came out of the bar.
“Oh, I see you told him what we were doing here. I told you he wouldn’t take it well if he found out.” She didn’t sound overly worked up.. “Thanks for leaving me in there, by the way.”
Eliot turned his head toward Carly. “You let her do this? Even though you knew that she was purposely putting herself in danger?”
“She’s an adult,” Carly shrugged. “She does whatever she wants.”
“What about what I want?”
“She said you wouldn’t find out.”
Eliot pinched the bridge of his nose. “Excuse me?”
“You’re not helping,” I hissed.
“Sorry,” Carly sighed. “I’m tired. I need to get out of here. I’ll leave you two to your fight. Call me tomorrow and tell me how you got yourself out of this one.”
Eliot reached over and grabbed Carly’s arm. “Two women associated with this speed-dating event have been murdered in the past several weeks,” he said. “And you think it’s a good idea to walk back to your car alone? In the dark?”
Carly tilted her head, considering his statement. “The killer is after blondes with blue eyes.”
Eliot’s eyes were trained on me. “Who told you that?”
“Avery.”
“If we were soldiers and we were both captured and tortured for information, you would be the first one to snitch,” I grumbled.
“They wouldn’t even have to torture me,” Carly admitted. “I’d roll over for chocolate.”
Eliot grabbed my arm and started pulling me as he moved to Carly’s side. “Where is your car?”
“In the parking garage.”
“Let’s go.”
Once Carly was safely out of the parking garage and on her way home, Eliot headed toward his apartment wordlessly. The anger he was feeling was roiling just under the surface, but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to express it. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Why don’t you just yell at me and get it over with.”
“Why would I yell?”
“Because you’re obviously pissed.”
“Why would I be pissed?” Eliot’s tone was cold.
“Because I lied to you and went speed dating behind your back.”
Eliot shook his head and then swung around to face me. We were in the middle of Main Street on a Saturday night in downtown Mount Clemens -- and yet there was no traffic. “I don’t care about the speed dating.”
“Then what are you angry about?”
“What … are you kidding me … you’re going to be the death of me, I swear … it’s like you’re a child sometimes.”
It wasn’t one complete sentence. It was more like a hodgepodge of thoughts that erupted from him like word vomit.
“I don’t get why you’re so worked up,” I said stubbornly.
Eliot gritted his teeth and pushed his face as close to mine as he could get it. We were nose to nose. “Because you purposely put yourself in danger tonight.”
Oh. That. “Not really,” I argued. “I was investigating speed dating. I wasn’t putting myself in danger. I brought backup, for crying out loud.”
“Carly is not backup.”
“Of course she is,” I countered. “We went there together and we were both going to leave together. I just wanted to see if I could get a feel for the type of people who go to these things.”
“And?”
“And? And I’m thankful I have you.” I said, linking my arm through his. I was hoping he would think I was being cute and forgive me.
“You’re so full of crap,” Eliot argued. He didn’t pull his arm away, though.
“Fine. What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to say that you were wrong.” Eliot took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest, watching me for a sign of weakness.
“I wasn’t wrong.” One look at Eliot’s stern face convinced me to change tactics. “I might have been a little overzealous and thoughtless, though.”
“That’s going to be engraved on your tombstone,” Eliot grumbled.
“I am sorry,” I said, keeping my voice low and my eyes downcast and piteous. “I honestly didn’t think about it.”
“That’s your problem,” Eliot charged on. “You never think before you leap. In your line of work, that’s going to get you in trouble.”
“And you’ll be there to get me out of trouble.” I smiled hopefully.
Eliot returned the expression, but his smile was more of a cross between a frown and a smile, a painful grimace.
“I’ll be more careful.”
Eliot was like an immovable rock at this point.
“I promise,” I added.
Eliot finally blew out a sigh and drew me toward him. He dropped a kiss on top of my head, which made me believe the crisis had passed. “I know you don’t mean to get yourself into these situations.”
“I don’t,” I replied.
“You’re still a magnet for trouble.”
I couldn’t really argue with that.
“I’m not always going to be around to protect you.”
I wanted to tell him that I didn’t need protection, but something told me now wasn’t the time. “I was perfectly safe. I took Carly for a reason.”
“I know,” Eliot admitted. “It could have been a lot worse.”
“What? Like I could have gone home with Zack?” I was going for levity, but it fell flat. Eliot growled at my joke. “What? Too soon?”
Seventeen
“If you get up I’ll buy you breakfast.”
Eliot and I were tangled together, covered only by a sheet, and the sun was relatively high in the sky for what felt like the crack of dawn.
“It’s Sunday,” I groaned. “We get to sleep in on Sundays.”
“It’s already after ten,” Eliot pointed out. “If you get up and shower, I’ll take you to breakfast and even let you pick our afternoon activities.”
He obviously thought my idea of fun afternoon activities was going to align with his idea of fun afternoon activities. He was about to have a rude awakening. I forced one of my eyes open and regarded him suspiciously. “Whatever I want?”
Eliot frowned. “Sure. Wait, what do you want to do? I’m not going shoe shopping or to the mall.”
“Oh, no,” I said. “You can’t change your mind after the fact. You’re going to either do what I want or you’re not, in which case I’m staying in this bed all day.”
Eliot wrapped his arms around me and shifted, rolling me on top of him. “Tell me what you’re up to.”
“Breakfast,” I said, snuggling down into his warmth.
“What else?”
I blew out a sigh. “I was thinking we could go to both crime scenes and you could tell me what you see when you look at them.”
Eliot groaned. “Really? This is our day off.”
“It shouldn’t take more than an hour,” I pouted.
“Fine,” Eliot said. “When we’re done with that, we’re doing what I want, though.”
“And what’s that?”
Eliot smiled evilly. “It might require costumes, so prepare yourself.”
I SHOWERED first, which allowed Eliot to run downstairs and make sure things in his pawnshop were locked up properly. Apparently, he’d been in such a hurry to get over to Fly a Kilt last night that he wasn’t even sure he’d emptied the register.
While he showered, I booted up my computer and checked email. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was surprised to find six new messages in my inbox.
“What are you doing?�
� Eliot was behind me, buttoning up his flannel shirt and reading my computer screen over my shoulder.
“I’m checking my email.”
“Anything good?”
“I got six follow-up date requests from speed dating last night.” I was trying to keep the laughter from bubbling up in my throat.
Eliot froze behind me. “What?”
“I guess I was very popular.”
“How many of those little mini-dates did you go on?”
“Seven.”
“Let me guess, the only one who didn’t request a second date was Zack.”
I shook my head, amusement flitting through my head. “Nope. Zack was the first one to respond.”
“You’re kidding.” Eliot pushed me out of the chair and sat down himself, opening up Zack’s email to read it. “Well, apparently if you’re sick of your side of beefcake Zack is available to tantalize your mind.”
“He didn’t use the word tantalize, did he?”
“It’s right here.”
“No wonder he’s single.”
“That’s all you’re going to say about this?” Eliot lifted his eyebrows and searched my face for clues.
“What else is there to say? It’s not like I’m going to date anyone else. Trust me, baby, you’re all I can handle right now.”
“So what are you going to do with these responses?”
“I’m going to run background checks,” I said, figuring honesty was the best policy right now.
Eliot looked surprised. “Really? That’s all you’re going to do?”
“What did you think I was going to do? Make a dinner date with them and then ask if they were a killer?” That was just ludicrous.
“You’ve done dumber things.”
“Like what?”
“Following Brick around because you thought he was a freeway shooter,” Eliot offered.
“You were there, too,” I reminded him.
“Fine,” Eliot conceded. “You’re being very responsible about this.”
“I’m always responsible.”
“Don’t press your luck.”
After a leisurely breakfast at the local Coney, Eliot drove out to the Clinton River and the site of the second body dump. We picked that site to visit first because it was closest. Once we parked, I followed Eliot as he navigated through the fallen trees and piles of leaves -- most of the trees were bare this time of year -- and just let him take in the ambiance and ground cover.
“I honestly think he picked this area because it’s convenient,” he said finally.
“What makes you think the killer is a man? Jake won’t answer specific questions about signs of sexual assault, although I think the fact that they were found naked pretty much signifies that you’re right. Just because there are signs of sexual assault, though, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a man. It could be a woman using a foreign object.”
“Because whoever carried the body down here had to be strong,” Eliot explained. “That’s a long walk down a steep hill.”
“Women can be strong,” I pointed out.
“They can,” Eliot agreed. “That’s too long of a walk with dead weight for a woman, though.” Eliot pointed up to the road. “The killer would have parked up there with that clump of trees hiding his vehicle and then walked down here. There’s not a lot of traffic in this area, so it wouldn’t have been hard to get in and get out with no one seeing him, especially with that recreation road in back that way.”
I had never really believed it was a woman, but I had learned never to rule anything out over the years. “So we’re probably talking like a truck or a sport utility vehicle, right?”
“Not necessarily,” Eliot replied. “He could have killed them somewhere else and then just dumped them in his trunk to transport them. Do you happen to know if they were killed in this location or were they already dead when they were dumped?”
That was a good question. “No,” I shook my head, mentally kicking my own butt. “I didn’t think to ask.”
“Just keep it in mind for the next news conference.”
“Right.”
Eliot glanced around again. “Okay, do you know where the other body was found?”
“About ten miles that way,” I pointed. I think I was pointing in the right direction. I would know better when Eliot punched the information I had into his truck’s GPS.
“We could walk it.”
That sounded like a huge waste of time. “If we walk it, that’s going to mean we have less time for your plans this afternoon.”
Eliot smirked. “You are unbelievably lazy sometimes.”
That was an insult, but I didn’t bite. “Let’s just drive.”
“Fine.”
We climbed back up the embankment and moved toward his truck. I paused, though, right before I reached for the door handle. “Do you hear that?”
Eliot’s head was already tilted to the sky. A helicopter hovered above us. “That’s from the national guard base,” Eliot said grimly. “Why would they be out here?”
I was fairly sure I knew. A hint of movement caught my attention out on the river. “They found another body.”
“What?” Eliot was surprised.
“They found another body.”
“How can you be sure?”
I pointed to an area behind him wordlessly. Eliot turned, his eyes taking in the scene that it had taken me a full minute to register. “Are those sheriff’s department units?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s at least six of them.”
“How far would you guess that is from here?”
Eliot considered the question. “We can see them because of the bend in the river. If I had to guess, though, I would say it’s about a mile.”
“We better start walking then,” I sighed.
“Walking?” Eliot’s eyes cleared. “Because we’re going over there to see if they found another victim? Of course we are.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly -- and I meant it. “You can just leave me here and go back to your place. I know you love your football Sundays. I can find another way home.”
“You think I’m just going to leave you in the woods and happily sit on the couch watching football?”
“I know this isn’t exactly your type of fun.”
“This isn’t anyone’s type of fun.”
“I’ll be fine. It won’t take me that long to get down to the cops.”
“I’m going with you.”
“You don’t have to.”
Eliot grabbed my hand, wrapping his fingers around my wrist reassuringly. “We’re in this together, trouble.”
“How am I trouble? I obviously didn’t do this.”
“You’re always trouble,” Eliot sighed. “It’s just drawn to you.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist briefly, resting my head on his chest in an attempt to soak up his warmth, and then pulled away. “We’re probably better off walking down there.”
“Yeah, let’s get moving. I can’t wait to see how Jake reacts to you showing up this time.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. “He’ll be fine,” I brushed off Eliot’s concern.
Eliot smirked. “You just delude yourself into believing whatever outcome makes life easiest for you, don’t you?”
“That’s my super power,” I admitted.
Eliot laughed. “It’s only one of them, my dear. Only one.”
We held hands as we moved toward the crime scene. We had about ten minutes of peace before all hell was going to break loose. Again.
Eighteen
Once we rounded the corner -- Eliot had insisted on sticking to the road and not cutting through the woods because he didn’t want to be arrested for contaminating a crime scene -- the full scope of what we were looking at finally hit us.
“Holy crap.”
“This is not good,” I agreed.
“That’s a lot more than the six marked units we saw from down the road.”
; “Yeah. They’ve got two crime tech units, one county recreation van and one meat wagon, too.”
“Meat wagon?” Eliot raised an eyebrow.
“I watch a lot of television.”
“I’ve noticed.”
As we approached the hubbub, a few officers caught sight of us. Thankfully, I didn’t recognize any of them, which meant there was a 50-50 chance they would think we were just random residents drawn by the action.
“Aren’t you Avery Shaw?”
Or not.
“No,” I shook my head emphatically. “I have no idea who that is.”
The officer who asked the question focused his full attention on me. “You’re not Avery Shaw?”
“Nope.”
Eliot was watching me curiously, but he seemed perfectly happy to let me lead the way.
“What’s your name?”
“Willow.”
Eliot snorted softly.
“Willow what?”
“Rosenberg.”
The officer didn’t look convinced. Thankfully -- or actually unthankfully -- he didn’t have long to sit there and ponder my identity.
“What the hell?”
I recognized Derrick’s voice before I could turn to face him. “Hi!”
“How … what … how … seriously.”
I often make men speechless. It’s another of my super powers.
“You look great. Have you lost weight?”
Derrick glared at me. “How did you find out about this?”
The phrase “dumb luck” wafted through my mind a lot the past few days. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“We just happened to be in the area.”
Derrick’s eyes were dark and disbelieving. “You just happened to be out for a walk along the Clinton River. On a Sunday. In November. Why does that sound like a big, fat lie?”
“Because you’re naturally suspicious? That’s probably why you became a cop. Well, that and the fact that you have Short Man’s Syndrome.”
I could feel Eliot shaking with silent laughter beside me. Derrick listed his height as five feet, six inches, but he was a good inch and a half shorter than that.
“Jake is going to freak when he sees you here,” Derrick said.
“I think he’s going to be fine,” I countered.
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