“She’s a strong old lady,” he said amiably. “Most elderly patients we see who fall like that often end up with wounds. She has some bruising, but that’s it. Nothing visible.”
“She’s going to get better,” Liv repeated, turning to the doctor as if she was waiting for him to rebuke her words.
“Yes.” Dr Oliver smiled. “We’re getting her in for surgery tomorrow. She’ll probably stay here for a week or two, get physical therapy to help make sure she maintains her motor movements, and probably speech or occupational therapy. But she should be able to go home and be more able to live on her own.”
“I don’t know what to say.” And Liv didn’t, not really.
“Go home and get a good night’s sleep,” Dr Oliver recommended. “I’m guessing you want to be here for her surgery tomorrow, and that’ll be more difficult when you haven’t slept.”
Liv smiled faintly at him. “Thanks,” she said softly.
He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “If you have any questions, please have the nurse call me.” Then he was out the door, onto his next patient and taking care of the rest of the ward.
Liv turned to Gram, the excitement bubbling up underneath her skin. Still, there was a cautious part of her that would wait for the improvement until she could see it. “Did you hear that, Gram?” Liv whisper-shouted. “You’re going to be okay! You’re going to be okay.”
Tuesday 25th October; 3pm
Liv had picked up Mocha from River and was walking her to help get some of the jitters out. If Mocha wasn’t walked, she liked to eat things, like books and DVDs. Liv had learned that the hard way.
Without meaning to, she found herself wandering down the street to Cairo’s house. It stood still and alone, the police tape a distant memory. Sometime soon the house would be cleaned up, and maybe sold or demolished. The town was small enough that it was unlikely anyone would want to buy a house where a murder had been committed.
But stranger things had happened.
Liv stood at the top of the driveway, studying Cairo’s house and remembering the time she and Ryan had gotten trapped there. That made her feel a bit giddy. She had talked to Ryan earlier, told her the good news. Ryan was going to come by later so they could celebrate.
A small sound drew her attention. Through the dim lights, she could see the faint outline of a person in the house.
A shiver ran down her spine, goosebumps prickling on her skin. Who was that? It reminded her way too much of the time they had gotten stuck there, the mystery person.
“It’s just her family,” Liv told herself, but she gripped Mocha’s leash tighter. That made the most logical sense, but if she was certain it was family —
Why did she feel so afraid?
24
Tuesday 25th October; 3pm
Ryan stared at the image with barely-concealed frustration. Steven had an alibi for Charles’s murder. Whether or not he killed Cairo, he at least hadn’t killed Charles.
“What the hell is going on here?” Ryan muttered to herself, her hands on her hips. First had been Liv’s call that her Gram had a brain tumor, then Steven’s lawyer (the lovely Peter Harrington) had showed up with documentation that Steven had been ways out of town when the second murder had happened. It didn’t match what Steven had said, which made it even worse.
The Chief was mad, and so was Dane. Their case was falling apart, and they were no closer to finding out who had killed them than they had been before.
“What if there’s two killers?” Dane threw out.
“There could be,” Ryan allowed. “But that starts getting convoluted.”
“We should look into Charles’s alibi for Cairo’s murder.” Dane scowled.
Ryan started flipping through the files. “He had an alibi. The photo taken with his sister that was being held with his lawyer.”
“Of course he did.” Dane rolled his eyes.
“Did we ever find that marriage certificate?” Ryan looked at Dane.
“Yup.” Dane tossed her the piece of paper. “Officially married, two weeks before her death.”
“Huh.” Ryan looked at the paper. It looked all official and everything. She wasn’t certain what to think about it.
“All this to run away from someone.” Dane shook his head.
Ryan flipped through the files again. Her gut still felt that they were connected with her missing-persons case, and the dead girl. She checked the clock. She was meeting Liv later that night, but first she had to interview the family of the dead girl.
“Call me if anything happens.” Ryan nodded to Dane, then headed out of the station. She mentally reviewed the file she had on the dead girl as she drove. By the end of a case, detectives knew the lives of their victims almost better than their family or friends. Ashley, nineteen, recently out of high school. Not in college. Not mixed in with the local bad crew, but didn’t seem to hang out with many locals either.
Could she have been going out of town? That was something to consider, especially with the whole drug mule thing.
Hell, she could have been leaving the country. Ryan slumped in her car, even as she kept driving. She’d never personally dealt with a drug runner, but she knew from both TV and experience talking with other cops that they went international quite fast.
Ashley’s family was quite close to the station, in the poorer part of Amaranth. Ryan could see the mother standing at the window, her red-rimmed eyes tired but strong. That was what happened when you lost someone, Ryan knew. You cried until you couldn’t cry anymore, then you kept going.
She got out of the car, her notepad tucked into her pocket. “Hi, I’m here to talk to Melinda and Virgil?”
The door opened. “I’m Mel.” Her eyes were tired, lined with the tiny creases of the devastated. Ashley’s death had aged her. “Virgil had to stay at work, I’m afraid.”
“I’m Detective Olsen. We talked on the phone?”
Mel just nodded. Ryan shook her hand gently, then followed Mel into the house. “Do you want some water or coffee?” Mel’s voice was husky.
“I’m good, thanks.” Ryan didn’t want to inconvenience her in any way. “Can you tell me about your daughter?”
“She was brilliant,” Mel said softly. “She was smart, and she was going to be a doctor.”
Ryan dutifully jotted those things down, but from experience she knew parents tended to see the best in their kids. “Do you know if she ever got involved with drugs at all?”
Mel’s eyes turned sharp at her. “No.” That was a firm answer. “She may have gotten in with the wrong crew in high school, but she was getting her life back in order. She was working, she was getting ready to move into her own place…”
That was a similarity Ryan hadn’t thought of. Apparently both the missing girl and the victim lived at home, with their families. Was that a commonality for whomever was preying on them?
“Who was she hanging out with?” Ryan prepared to jot down names. Those would be her next targets.
“There was Ellie and that missing girl, Jasmine,” Mel said, obviously having to stop and think. “There was also a boy called Tanner.”
“Were these friends from high school?” Ryan asked.
Mel nodded. “Most were attending college,” she said. “Ashley was getting ready to start this fall.” Her eyes turned distant and tears streaked down her cheeks.
Now her daughter would never start college.
Ryan nodded sympathetically, and she took a moment to survey the house. It was definitely lower middle class. Large TV, older game systems, and fractured paintings on the wall that looked like they’d been owned for years. “Did she have any siblings?” Ryan asked. That wasn’t something that had been included in the documents she had read.
Mel shook her head. “No. She was an only child.” She picked up some tissues and dabbed them to her eyes.
Ryan could only imagine that it made her loss so much worse. “Do you happen to know where her friends hang out?”
“The abandoned train tracks about a half mile outside of town.” Despite the tears on her face, there was a hint of a smile, too. “Ashley loved them. Said they were spooky.”
They were. And they were also the perfect place to drink or deal drugs as needed. But Ryan didn’t let what she was thinking show up on her face. “If there’s anything else you can think of, please give me a call.” She passed Mel a copy of her business card.
Mel nodded. Ryan took one last view of the house.
Then she nodded back and left. She got in her car, her mind spinning a mile a minute. She needed to go talk to the kids. A glance at the clock told her it was too late for today. Tomorrow.
She had plans to meet Liv.
Tuesday 25th October; 6pm
Liv stood at the coffee shop, checking on it. She had gotten a call from River that she had driven by after hours and saw that the door was open and the lights were off. Liv had rushed there after picking Mocha up from River’s. It sent a chill down her spine, but surely it was just a mistake on the door mechanism’s part or something else that had happened. There was nothing sinister about it.
Mocha by her side, she opened the door and looked inside. It looked just the same as she had left it. Exhaling in relief, she sank down into the chair at one of the small tables. She had a few more minutes before she had to go back home, maybe a half hour before Ryan had said she would be there.
The thought of Ryan coming over for the night made her just as giddy as it had in high school, when they snuck over to Ryan’s house at night to sleep together. It wasn’t always sexual. But usually, they had an agenda.
Mocha whuffed softly, and Liv looked down at her. “What do you see, girl?” She stroked the long ears. Mocha stood up now, her nose doing the twitchy thing beagle noses did when they were sniffing. Her eyes were alert, her body stiff. Something was bothering her.
Liv looked out in front of them. There was nothing. But that prickling feeling was back, like someone was watching her.
Then Mocha moved under the table, nudging at the center tree that kept it standing.
“Don’t knock it over!” Liv slid off the chair, grabbing the table before Mocha could flip it over.
But Mocha kept pushing at it, then whining.
Carefully Liv tipped it down to the ground, so she could see the underside. Nothing looked out of place or particularly ominous.
Then she saw it. Tucked to the inside of the table legs was a small flash drive.
What was she, in a spy movie?
Still, she used a napkin before she pulled it off of the table. Then she sat it on a different table, staring at it. Whose was it? Who had put it there? It was plain and black, but when Liv turned it over, the top side was decorated as a joker card.
Liv shivered. Was it a trick?
She glanced around outside, then went and double-checked that the front door was locked. She slid the flash drive into her pocket, as casually as if she was resting her hand there, and headed to the back office. She had a computer there that was primarily used for keeping track of expenses and supplies, but it did have a USB slot.
Turning on the computer, Liv slid the USB drive into the computer until a small light turned on, indicating it had connected. The little computer USB thing that indicated her computer was processing popped up, a little circle spinning in circles and circles.
NO CONTENT.
It was just a pop-up. Liv frowned at it, ejected it and then put it back in. Who would hide an empty flash drive in her coffee shop?
But there was the same ‘No content’ message as before.
She looked at the flash drive, her mind spinning. Whose was it? What should she do with it?
The ringing of her phone reminded her that the real world existed. “Crap!” She’d forgotten Ryan was coming over.
“Let’s go, Mocha.” She headed straight to her car, Mocha trotting beside her.
25
Tuesday 25th October; 7pm
Liv parked the car, letting Mocha out first so she could check the surrounding area. But Liv could tell it was safe. The prickling, we-are-watching you feeling had disappeared. She was home now. She was okay.
Ryan was standing at the front door, one hand on her hip and a half-smile on her face. “Got sidetracked?” she teased.
Liv could feel the weight of the flash drive in her pocket, but she didn’t mention it. “You know work.” Liv smiled in return.
Ryan pulled her close and kissed her until Mocha barked in protest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t greet you.” Ryan crouched down to greet Mocha, giving her scratches.
“She’ll lay down and sleep soon enough.” Liv chuckled. Her emotions were running high. Was she making the wrong decision? She had no proof it was related to the case, and she didn’t want to worry Ryan unnecessarily.
“Is Gram okay?” Ryan looked at her, alert.
Liv looked down at her phone and nodded. “Last I talked to the nurses, she was sleeping.” The icy grip of fear curled around her heart. “Her surgery’s tomorrow.”
“It’ll be okay,” Ryan said softly.
“You don’t know that.” Liv looked away from her.
Ryan pulled her close. Liv didn’t protest. “I don’t,” Ryan admitted. “But no matter what, we’ll make it through.”
Liv didn’t miss her use of the plural. “So…”
Ryan pulled back so she could look at her. Liv met her eyes, ignoring the anxiety that prickled across her skin. Was Ryan ready to trust her? Was Liv ready for it? “Up to you,” she said simply.
Liv studied her, her heart lurching in a steady beat against her rib cage. “Okay.” It felt like jumping off a cliff, like she was taking a risk she wasn’t ready for. But if she had learned anything, it was that you never truly felt ready to take a risk. You just had to jump, and trust that things would turn out okay.
Ryan’s smile turned her stomach into a swarm of bees. “I can stay the night, if you’d like the company.”
Liv swallowed, her throat dry. “I’d like that.”
Liv closed her eyes as Ryan bent down slightly and kissed her, their lips melding together and a heat building between them. There were words she wanted to say, words she felt yet couldn’t voice, so she tried to send them in her movements, her body, instead.
She barely heard a faint sigh as Mocha settled on the couch, apparently resigned to the fact that the humans were going to ignore her. Liv would apologize to her later. She had more pressing priorities.
“Your room?” Ryan asked against her lips. Liv went straight for her blazer, trying to undo the buttons, but Ryan’s hands caught hers. “Bedroom first.”
Liv frowned at her, but nodded and led the way to the bedroom. Anticipation sizzled across her skin. It already seemed like Ryan had a plan for what was going to happen, a plan that Liv was undoubtedly going to enjoy.
There was a fluid confidence in the way Ryan moved, something Liv had envied since they had been together in high school. She was so sure of herself, so unashamed of everything she did. Liv still felt like she needed to hide, and preferred the dark.
But she was a decade older now, and stronger, too. She was running her own business, taking care of her family. She’d survived ten years in the big city, living on her wits and flitting from job to job. Surely she could do better now.
Ryan beat her into the bedroom, pausing and looking around.
It wasn’t exactly what Liv had expected.
“Let’s see…” Ryan’s attention seemed to have shifted off her. Liv stood there, hot and bothered. She almost wanted to pout, but she didn’t.
Liv’s eyes narrowed as Ryan fiddled with a few knobs on the small stereo she had in her room. Although Liv preferred the dark, she couldn’t sleep when it was dark and silent. Suddenly, soft music started playing. It wasn't classical, more like the light pop she listened to at the shop when working.
“This works,” Ryan decided.
Liv just looked at her. “I’m waiting to be clued in to the plan.”
<
br /> One song came to an end and another one started. Ryan grinned, gently moving Liv until she was sitting on the bed.
Liv’s heart skittered in her chest. Then her eyes glued on Ryan’s blazer as slowly, torturously, she started undoing the buttons. Liv swallowed despite her suddenly dry throat. Oh, she could get down with that. No matter what was happening in either of their lives, or in the world, she had something to focus on at the moment. And that was Ryan.
Rolling her body to the movement, Ryan slid off the blazer and started on her shirt. Liv could see the top of her lacy white bra underneath the blouse. All she wanted to do was get up and touch, but she had a feeling that Ryan wasn’t going to let her until she was done.
A few more buttons and the shirt slid off, pooling on the floor. Ryan stood there in a bra and slacks, and then deliberately bit her lip.
“This isn’t a porn show,” Liv retorted, but she was grinning.
Ryan took off a sock and threw it at her. “You’re ruining my fun!”
Liv grinned. “Then take the rest of it off.” Her confidence was buoyed, and she felt more in her element. Ryan trusted her. She trusted Ryan, no matter how tentative. More than anything, she wanted to feel Ryan against her. This whole waiting thing was obviously torture designed by the patriarchy. Or whatever.
Liv watched as Ryan undid the button on her pants, then the zipper. With a little help, the black slacks slid down her hips, revealing bright red underwear. Liv looked from the underwear to her bra.
“I suck at matching clothes, okay?” Ryan stuck her tongue out at Liv.
“You should take those off, too,” Liv decided. Her skin felt warm all over, her nipples hardening in her bra. “So you match.”
“By wearing nothing.” Ryan’s eyebrows quirked upwards.
“Exactly,” Liv said.
Ryan took off the second sock first, then reached behind her and undid her bra. Slowly, torturously, she slid the bra forward and off her arms, until her top was naked.
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