The Preditorial Page

by Lee, Amanda M.

  Eliot’s back was to me as he stood at the stove. There was a big pot of something boiling on the burner in front of him and he was sliding a pile of vegetables off the chopping board into a large fry pan. He looked good. Wait, no he didn’t. I’m mad at him.

  “Are you lost?”

  Eliot didn’t turn around. “Nope.”

  “How did you even get in here?”

  “I have a key,” Eliot reminded me. “Also, the back door wasn’t locked. That’s a great way to stay safe when there’s a killer out there, by the way.”

  I hate it when he talks down to me.

  “I must have forgotten. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

  “Join the club.”

  There was no way I was going to apologize to him. Instead, I stuck my head in the refrigerator and rummaged around until I found a can of Diet Coke. I sat down at the kitchen table, popped the can open, and sipped it noisily. I can be really annoying when I want to be. To be fair, I can be really annoying when I’m not trying, too. It’s a gift.

  “How was your day?” Eliot broke first.

  “Interesting.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, let’s see, I went to breakfast at the Coney this morning, and the medical examiner joined me. He’s really odd, by the way.”

  “Odd how?”

  “He asked me out.”

  Eliot still wasn’t facing me, but I saw his shoulders twitch. “He asked you out?”

  “He wanted to know if we were serious. I told him we were in a fight, but I really wasn’t up for dating anyone new. He thought it might be a good idea if he approached you with the suggestion.”

  Eliot laughed. The sound was actually a relief -- a very small one. “And what did you tell him?”

  “That you were crazy jealous and you’d rip his head off.”

  “Good answer.”

  More silence.

  “What else happened?”

  “Well, it seems the sheriff’s department is going on a media blackout,” I replied. “Jake’s not releasing any new information on the new victim.”

  Eliot finally glanced over at me. “I take it that pisses you off.”

  “It did,” I said. “Until Jake offered me a different arrangement this afternoon.”

  “You saw Jake?”

  “Fish sent me to the county commission meeting this afternoon. I thought it was a punishment for the whole media blackout thing, but it turns out Fish knew Jake was going to be there so it was really a reward.”

  “And how did the meeting go?” Eliot was choosing his words carefully.

  “Well, let’s see, there was a lot of screaming about the budget. Jake picked a fight with Tad Ludington. I knew better but threw my two cents in. That pretty much derailed the meeting. Then Jake said if I tell him what I know, he’d be willing to share information with me.”

  Eliot exhaled slowly. “Are you going to take him up on that offer?”

  “I haven’t decided yet,” I admitted. “He’s placed a few strings on the offer.”

  “Like?”

  “Like he wants to control what I print -- and when.”

  “And that doesn’t seem fair to you?”

  “That seems like a leash.”

  Eliot snorted. “And you’re not fond of leashes.”

  “Not in the least.”

  We lapsed into silence again. Neither of us wanted to address the elephant in the room. Finally, Eliot gave in. Again. “I know you’re angry about lunch yesterday.”

  “I’m furious about lunch yesterday,” I corrected him.

  “I did it for your own good.”

  “That’s what my mom used to say when she would forbid me to go out with Jake when I was in high school,” I said.

  “I’m liking your mom more and more.”

  “It didn’t work. It just meant that I was climbing out of my window in the middle of the night to have sex in a car.”

  Eliot cleared his throat uncomfortably. “So, you’re saying you’re going to go and have sex with someone in a car because you’re mad at me?”

  “I haven’t decided yet,” I sniffed, taking another sip from my pop.

  Eliot rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to apologize for trying to keep you safe.”

  I guess we were winding up for another big fight.

  “I am going to apologize for the way I went about doing it, though.”

  So, what? He was offering me half an apology? Was I willing to settle for that? Oh, who am I kidding. “Fine.”

  Eliot raised an eyebrow. “So, is the fight over?”

  “That depends,” I said. “What are you cooking?”

  “I’m making a vegetable pasta.”

  I wrinkled my nose. He was a good cook, but I like my pasta to have a little more “oomph.”

  “With shrimp and scallops,” he added.

  “The fight is over.”

  TWO HOURS later we were sitting on the couch and watching television. Eliot had wrestled the X-Box controller away from me after dinner and forced me to watch network television instead.

  “I’m not going to sit here and watch you play video games for two hours,” he said.

  “You could play, too.”

  “I don’t want to play. At least that game.” His look was predatory.

  I wasn’t ready to give in just yet. “Fine. We can watch Supernatural.”

  “Fine,” Eliot agreed.

  “Why are you giving in so easily?”

  “Because you think both those guys are hot and it will rev you up for what I have in mind.”

  I do think Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are hot. I’m still not in the mood to make Eliot happy, though.

  We had barely made it to the first commercial break when Eliot’s hand started wandering. I wanted to finish the episode, but I was finding it hard to concentrate. “Focus on the television,” I ordered.

  Eliot sighed and pulled his hand back. He looked around the room for a few seconds, finally letting his gaze settle on the vase of roses in the dining room. “Where did those come from?”

  “They were on my front porch when I got home yesterday.”

  “Who are they from?”

  Crap. I had forgotten about the card. “I thought they were from you,” I said. “I have no idea who they’re from, though. I think it’s probably one of the freaks from speed dating. The card didn’t have a name.”

  Eliot’s face had gone grim. “And you didn’t think to tell me about this?”

  “Why? You know about the speed dating.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t know about the flowers.”

  “I wasn’t talking to you at the time,” I reminded him.

  “So, you told Derrick?”

  “Why would I?”

  Eliot was working mightily to keep his rage in check. That was obvious by the way he kept shifting uncomfortably on the couch. “Well, for starters, has it occurred to you how someone from speed dating managed to find you?”

  “No.”

  “Didn’t you use the name Willow while you were there?”

  Huh, good point. “Yeah,” I hedged. “Maybe it wasn’t from speed dating.”

  “Really?” Eliot looked nonplussed. “Did you meet a different man I don’t know about on another night?”

  I narrowed my eyes. This was a trick question. “No.”

  “So, the question is, how did someone from speed dating find out your real name? And your address, for that matter.”

  Well crap. I opened my mouth to argue and then snapped it shut. For the first time in my life, I had absolutely nothing to say.

  “Do you still have the card?”

  I reluctantly got up from the couch and went to the laundry room. I returned to Eliot and dropped the card on his lap. I watched as he read it, waiting for an explosion that didn’t come.

  “I want you to show this to Derrick.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I said so.”

  “Because you said so?�
� I could feel my blood start to boil again.

  Eliot switched off the television and got to his feet. He obviously figured I was going to kick him out of the house. Instead, he moved into my bedroom, stripping his shirt off while he went.

  Oh, well, now he was just trying to distract me. If he thought the sight of his hard muscles and sexy tattoos was going to make me forget … wait, what was I just thinking?

  “I’m not fighting with you,” Eliot said. “Now get in bed.”

  “You’re not the boss of me.” I said the words, although there wasn’t much force behind them.

  “Get. In. Bed.”

  Well, fine. This wasn’t over, though. I just can’t concentrate when he’s standing there being all hot.

  Twenty-Four

  “What’s on your agenda today?”

  Eliot and I were still in bed the next morning, neither of us showing any inclination to climb out in the foreseeable future.

  “I’m off today.”

  “In the middle of the week?” Eliot looked surprised.

  “Fish doesn’t want to pay me overtime for the weekend.”

  “Ah.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “I have to go out to the Westin Cider Mill this afternoon.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s for one of my clients.”

  “One of your private investigator clients?”

  Eliot ran his hand down my arm lazily. “Yeah. I just have to serve a guy with divorce papers. He works out there.”

  Nice job. “Don’t they have a whole service of people that do that?”

  “This guy might need a more firm touch,” Eliot admitted.

  “Oh, he’s a douche bag?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Is he like a wife beater or something?”

  Eliot didn’t answer the question, but his eyes told the truth. “Well, if that’s the case,” I continued. “I hope he puts up a fight so you can beat the tar out of him.”

  Eliot chuckled. “How about you go with me?”

  “Why? Do you want me to kick him in the nuts to distract him?”

  Eliot couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “That wouldn’t be my first choice, no,” he replied. “I was thinking that, once I’m done with my little task, that we could make a day out of it.”

  “Make a day out of what?”

  “It’s supposed to hit sixty today,” Eliot said. “This could be one of the last nice days we have until next spring.”

  He had a point. Still, nature and I don’t always get along. “What would we do?”

  “There’s a corn maze.”

  “I’m not twelve.”

  “There’s warm cider.”

  “I’m not sixty.”

  “There are fresh doughnuts.”

  He went straight for my Achilles heel. “It won’t take me too long to shower.”

  IT ACTUALLY took me longer to shower than I initially figured, mostly because I didn’t do it alone. Two hours and one big breakfast at a local diner later and Eliot and I found ourselves in the northern region of Macomb County.

  “Why would anyone live out here?”

  “Because it’s pretty,” Eliot said, his eyes continuously jumping between the road and his GPS.

  “Yeah, but there’s nothing out here.”

  “Some people like that.”

  “Crazy people.”

  Eliot smiled. “You grew up in a small town surrounded by a lot of woods,” he pointed out. “You managed to survive.”

  “That’s because as soon as I was old enough to know better, I started drinking in a field with all the other dregs of society.”

  “So, you’re saying you’re a city girl at heart?”

  “And then some. What about you?” I eyed him curiously.

  “I like the woods,” he said. “I like to go camping and fishing a couple times a year.”

  I tried to hide my shudder. That sounded like some specific version of hell to me. “You don’t want to move to a cabin and stop shaving, do you?”

  Eliot barked out a laugh. “No, definitely not. I’m a city boy at heart. I tell myself that the country sounds great. Two days is about my limit, though. I like the comforts of being able to shop at midnight or go to a movie whenever I want too much to live this far out.”

  “That’s a relief.”

  After two wrong turns, which Eliot enthusiastically blamed on a defective GPS, but refused to stop and ask for directions, we found Westin Cider Mill and parked. Eliot directed me toward the doughnut table and told me he would join me in a few minutes.

  “You don’t want backup?”

  “I think I can manage,” he replied. “Just stay over there.”

  “Do you even know what this guy looks like?”

  Eliot pulled a snapshot out of his back pocket and glanced down at it. “Yup.”

  “Be careful.”

  “You, too.”

  “I don’t think I’m in danger from anything but eating too much.”

  “Keep it that way.”

  Eliot disappeared into the big pole barn at the center of the property while I made my way to the concession stand. I opted for a cup of hot chocolate and a freshly made cake doughnut while I waited.

  The mill and adjoining orchard were big -- too big to see the outer limits of -- and the trees that surrounded the property were now bare of leaves. I bet it was pretty a few weeks ago when the leaves were turning and the bright colors reached into the sky to touch the horizon. Not pretty enough to tempt me out here again, though. It was too long a ride for a doughnut, even if it was one of the best I had ever had.

  Eliot returned about fifteen minutes later, looking slightly disheveled. “Did he get violent?”

  “We had a difference of opinion,” Eliot admitted.

  “Who won?”

  “Who do you think?”

  “Do you want a doughnut?”

  Eliot pulled two tickets out of his pocket instead. “I thought we’d go through the corn maze.”

  I glanced over my shoulder dubiously. “I don’t know,” I hedged.

  “Why?”

  “I’ve seen Children of the Corn,” I said. “It won’t end well.”

  Ignoring my reticence, Eliot grabbed my hand, dragging me toward the corn maze. Since it was so late in the year, it actually looked more sad than scary. I wasn’t telling him that, though.

  “How big is this thing?”

  “I don’t know,” Eliot shrugged. “Big enough for us to get some time alone.”

  “I am not having sex with you in a corn maze.”

  “Good to know.”

  We meandered through the maze for the next fifteen minutes and, I’m not going to lie, it got progressively creepier. The deeper we got into the maze the more isolated I started to feel. Since we were the only ones there, it was an eerie feeling. “What happens if we get lost in here?”

  “It’s cornstalks, not brick walls,” Eliot pointed out. “If we get tired, we’ll just cut through the corn.”

  “That sounds like cheating.”

  “Like you’re above cheating.”

  He had a point. Since I was starting to get bored, I thought I would spice things up. “I have an idea.”

  “I thought you were against having sex in a corn maze.”

  “Not that,” I said. “Although, my idea might tie into that.”

  “How?”

  “I say we split up and whoever finds their way out first gets to decide what movie we see tonight.”

  Eliot considered the offer. “I agree to your terms … with one addendum.”

  “What’s that?” I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

  “Instead of a movie, the winner gets a massage. For a whole hour.”

  I could live with a massage. “Agreed. No cutting through the maze, though. You’ve got to follow the path.” Mostly because I didn’t think that I could tolerate getting lost in the stalks when they were close enough to reach out and choke me. What? I watch a lo
t of horror movies.

  We took off in different directions. Despite my bravado a few minutes earlier, once I could no longer hear Eliot’s footsteps on the maze path the fear started to creep in.

  I slowed my pace, listening hard. He couldn’t already be out, could he? After a few seconds I heard the reassuring sound of corn stalks rustling behind me. He must have taken a wrong turn.

  Wait, no, that couldn’t be right. Eliot had gone in the opposite direction. The thought caused me to stop where I was, my heart pounding in my ears as I tried to get my bearings. The wind was starting to pick up, and I swear I heard the word “Malachi” whispered on the wind. This was ridiculous, I told myself. It was just Eliot. He had circled around to try to scare me. He obviously wasn’t serious about that massage.

  “This isn’t funny,” I warned him.

  More sounds of shuffling bombarded my ears. He was closer. I glanced over my shoulder to see whether I could see him materialize out of the stalks. There was nothing there, though.

  “I’m not joking.”

  More rustling. My heart started hammering harder. I took a step away from the noise, hoping I was wrong. It was just the wind. Just the wind. There was no one else in here.

  I caught a hint of movement out of my right eye and swung around quickly. There was a blur of red and then, whoever was wandering through the maze, disappeared behind a hay bale. Eliot had been wearing a blue flannel shirt. Whoever this was, it was not Eliot.

  “Who is there?”

  No one answered.

  Panic seized my heart, and I started to run in the opposite direction from the figure. I had lost all sense of where I was or even where I was going. I just knew I had to put some distance between the corn maze and me.

  I could hear footsteps on the trail behind me, which made me realize how vulnerable I was if I stayed on the trail. As distasteful as I found the idea, I figured I had no other choice so I dove into the cornstalks that made up the maze and ran.

  It seemed as though I was in the maze forever. I was moving so fast I got whacked in the face by cornstalks as I fled. Finally, I stumbled out of the maze and found myself back in front of Westin Cider Mill.

  Eliot was standing a few feet away, a doughnut in his hand and a smile on his face. “You cheated and I still won.”

  The smile faded when he actually fixed his gaze on my face. “What happened?”