Last Words

by Mariah Stewart

“Let me guess. You couldn’t get to sleep on your own, so now you’re hung over?” His voice held an edge she had not heard there before. “Can’t clear your head this morning?”

  “I’m going to pretend you did not say that.”

  “Is that all? Is that what you called for?”

  “I just wanted you to know I was going to be late. This was supposed to be a courtesy call, Beck, but I guess you’ll see me when you see me.” She fought back an urge to curse. It had been a very long night. “How’s that for courtesy?”

  “Lisa’s missing,” he said tersely.

  “Missing? What do you mean, she’s…” The words caught in her throat. “Missing? You mean…missing? You think…?”

  “Yeah, Mia. I do. And if you’d answered your phone last night, or maybe checked your voice mail once in a while, you’d already know. So you can understand why right now I’m not particularly sympathetic to how you feel this morning. I think you need to get some help if you plan on staying in this line of work.”

  The line went dead. She barely noticed.

  If the killer had Lisa…

  She grabbed her bag from the kitchen counter and hurried outside. Checking for messages on her cell. Damn. Four missed calls. Two new voice mail messages. She played them back, listening to Beck’s terse voice as she searched for Connor.

  A half-dozen agents had been combing the woods and the fields and every square inch of ground around the house. So far, they’d found tire prints down the road and some impressions next to the basement window, but little else.

  “I have to go,” she told Connor when she found him hunched over the tire marks, supervising the young agent who’d drawn the job of photographing and casting the tires. “I have to leave for St. Dennis.”

  “Not a good idea, Mia.” Connor straightened up. “We still don’t know who was coming after who and why. It could very well be someone connected to the case you’re working on there, making a move on you.”

  “Doesn’t matter. If he makes the mistake of coming after me, he’ll wish he hadn’t.”

  “Brave words, little cousin.” Connor turned his full attention to her. “Mia, what’s going on?”

  “This killer…he abducts women and keeps them someplace. Keeps them alive, rapes them, tortures them. When he’s finished with them, he kills them by wrapping them up in plastic wrap and watches them suffocate.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Right. Well, he’s killed three women that we know of. And apparently, yesterday he took a fourth victim. She’s a cop, Con. I was just starting to get to know her. I like her. Just yesterday she was telling me how happy she was, how she married the man of her dreams and has this perfect life. And just hours later, she was gone.” She cleared her throat. “I have to go. You don’t really need me here.”

  “You have someone there who’ll watch your back?”

  “Beck.” She called over her shoulder as she started down the road. “The chief of police in St. Dennis. Beck will watch my back…”

  Mia hustled through the glass doors off the lobby of the St. Dennis municipal building and into the miniscule area that served as reception for the police department. Garland watched her approach, a look of surprise on his face.

  “That’s a different look for you,” he said.

  She looked down at her cutoffs and realized she was still dressed in the same shorts and T-shirt and flip flops she’d put on the night before.

  “Yeah, well, it’s been a busy night.” She pointed to Beck’s office. “Is the chief in?”

  “He’s in, but he’s downstairs in one of the interrogation rooms.”

  “St. Dennis has interrogation rooms?” She frowned. “You have a holding cell, too?”

  “They’re pretty much the same room,” Garland admitted. “We don’t hold prisoners here. If we arrest someone, we usually take them right to the county facility, or over to Ballard, if it’s only going to be for the night. We’ve never had cells here.”

  “Who’s he interrogating?” she asked.

  “Mickey.” Vanessa stepped through the open conference room door. “Beck’s questioning Mickey. He thinks he has something to do with Lisa being missing.”

  Vanessa’s eyes were clouded with tears.

  “He won’t let me come down there.” Vanessa pointed to the steps. “You go on down there and tell him that Mickey couldn’t have had anything to do with anything.”

  “Vanessa, maybe you should go on back to the store.” Mia took her arm and tried to steer her gently in the direction of the lobby. “I’ll have Beck give you a call when they’re finished downstairs, okay?”

  “You don’t understand, Mia.” Vanessa lowered her voice to a whisper. “Beck really doesn’t like Mickey at all.”

  “Trust me. That won’t have a thing to do with it. Beck is too professional to allow his personal feelings to influence an investigation.” She hoped. No, she knew. Beck was a cop first. “Look, how about if I check downstairs, see what’s what. I’ll stop over at the shop later, all right? I’ll keep you in the loop, I promise.”

  “Okay.” Vanessa nodded.

  “Vanessa, are you in love with him? With Mickey?” Mia couldn’t help but ask.

  “No.” She smiled weakly. “But we’re friends. He’s not capable of doing…whatever Beck thinks he might have done. Mickey’s had a hard year, with his wife leaving him and all that, but he’s a good guy, Mia. He really is.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Mia nodded. She watched Vanessa head for the door. “Vanessa,” she called out and the young woman turned. “Do you know why she left him? Mickey’s wife?”

  Vanessa nodded. “She was offered a job with some big hospital in Philly.”

  “What does she do?”

  “She’s an E.R. doctor. After the kids were born, she worked part-time, mostly weekends, but then, I guess it just wasn’t enough for her. According to Mick, she sent out applications to a bunch of hospitals without telling him, then when she got an offer she liked, she just told him she was leaving and taking the kids. Sad, huh? To just walk like that?” Vanessa shook her head. “Talk about dropping a bomb into someone’s life…”

  “Yeah.” Mia nodded. That would certainly qualify as a life-changing experience…

  She knocked on the door, then opened it without waiting to be invited in.

  “Beck.” She walked into the room as if she’d been expected. “Mickey.”

  “Agent Shields.” Mickey, his eyes dark and angry, glared at her from across the room. “I was just leaving. Unless, of course, the chief here has any more questions…? I am free to leave, aren’t I?”

  “You’re free to leave. Just don’t leave town.”

  Mia stepped back as Mickey passed her on his way out. He stopped in the doorway and looked back at Beck.

  “I don’t know anything about Lisa Singer being missing, Beck,” Mickey said softly. “I swear it on my kids’ lives. For Christ’s sake, she was my friend.”

  Beck appeared to have not heard. He neither turned to the door nor did he look up when Mia closed the door after Mickey left the room.

  “What’s the latest on Lisa?” she asked.

  “Same as yesterday. Gone without a trace.”

  “I ran into Vanessa upstairs.”

  “She needs to keep her distance from Forbes right now.”

  “Do you really think he has anything to do with Lisa’s disappearance?”

  “As far as we know, he was the last person to see her, to talk to her. Until we find someone who saw her after he did, he’s our best bet.”

  “It doesn’t feel right.”

  “Why not? You said yourself he fits the profile.”

  “I just don’t think he’s all that smart. I think our killer is much smarter, slicker. He’s more sophisticated. Mickey’s like, oh, like a big goofy pup. There’s nothing playful about our killer.”

  “Maybe he’s smarter than he looks, Mia. Maybe that’s a ruse.”

  “If it is, he’s damned good
at it.” She sat down across the table from Beck. “Beck, I’m really, really sorry that you weren’t able to get in touch with me. I left my phone on the kitchen counter and unfortunately, forgot about it. I can’t tell you how sorry I am about Lisa. And that I wasn’t here for you. Personally and professionally.”

  He nodded slowly. “It was a long, sad night, Mia.”

  She reached across the table and took his hand in both of hers. “Start from the beginning. Tell me everything…”

  “I stopped out at Singer’s house around six, but there wasn’t anyone there. I stopped at the showroom, but Jay said Todd hadn’t gotten back from taking the kids to Annapolis, that he’d called and said he was staying to have dinner with his sister and her family. Then Todd called me at home around eleven. Said he’d just gotten back and Lisa wasn’t there. He wanted to know if she was working overtime. I got in my car and I drove up and down every street in town, looking for her car. I called in Hal and Susan and had them search for her, too. This morning I put everyone on it. If she’s in St. Dennis, she’s hidden pretty damn well.”

  “Those old buildings you were talking about yesterday…” She disengaged their hands.

  “Funny you should bring that up. He held up a stack of computer printouts. “Three of the buildings were open-not secured in any way, and they were searched overnight. Oh, there were signs someone had been in them, but it was most likely kids. There were a few comic books, some empty beer cans. Cigarette butts, that sort of thing. There were a few that were pretty well boarded up, though. Hal had someone in records check them out. You’ll never guess who they belong to.”

  “Surprise me.”

  “Hamilton Forbes.” Beck shoved the list across the table. “Mickey’s father.”

  “So you went inside and found…”

  “Nothing, yet.” Beck looked at his watch. “Once Ham knew we’d brought Mickey in and why, there was no point in asking for the keys. He went ballistic.”

  “I imagine his mother didn’t appreciate it much either.”

  “Christina?” Beck scoffed. “She was the one who insisted Mickey come and talk to me. She says he couldn’t possibly have anything to hide, so there was no point making it look as if he did by making him hide behind the family lawyer. She also demanded that Ham hand over the keys to all the properties he owns, which he is refusing to do. So the two of them are at each others throats again.”

  “And in the meantime, Lisa’s still missing.”

  “Yes.” He looked at her with weary cop’s eyes. “Lisa is still missing.”

  “I’m assuming you asked for a warrant…”

  “I’m just waiting for Hal to get back here with it.” He nodded. “I swear to God, if I find a trace of her in any of those buildings…”

  He pushed back from the table and out of his chair.

  “She’s a good cop, Mia. One of the best. She’s a great mom-she’s devoted to her kids, devoted to Todd…” He raked a hand through his hair. “If that bastard has taken her, I swear to you…”

  “We’ll find her, Beck. We’ll turn St. Dennis inside out if we have to, but we’ll find her.”

  Duncan buzzed in on the intercom.

  “Chief, Hal just called in. Judge Enoch signed the warrants. He said he’s on his way down to the river and he’ll meet you at the old crabbers’ lodge.”

  “Thanks.” Beck headed for the door. “Let’s do it,” he said to Mia.

  She reached for her keys that she’d tossed on the table and followed him up the steps and out the door.

  “Garland, call Susan and tell her to stick to Mickey Forbes like a burr on a dog.” Beck and Mia passed the dispatcher’s desk in a blur. “And find Duncan. He should have been in by now…”

  Beck stopped outside the front door and cursed.

  “What?” Mia asked.

  “I meant to call for a rental car. I keep forgetting.”

  “Where’s your cruiser?” She gestured for him to follow her.

  “Hal has it. He loaned his car to his brother, Phil, who’s on vacation, so I let him use mine. It was actually his, you know?” Beck waited for Mia to unlock the Lexus. “When he was chief. He picked out the options, he ordered the car. Whenever I drive it, I feel like a kid who’s borrowed his…”

  “His father’s wheels?” She slid behind the wheel. Without waiting for him to comment, she added, “Nice of you to let him continue to drive it.”

  “He got shot when he was in ’Nam. Upper left thigh. He likes to pretend it doesn’t bother him, but if he’s on his legs for too long, I know it hurts. So I’d just as soon have him use the cruiser. I like to walk around town anyway.”

  “Which way am I going?”

  “Go left on Charles, then straight out to the highway. There are several roads leading down to the river. The old buildings Ham Forbes bought are all within walking distance from each other. One used to be a boat house, another was used by the crabbers who worked the bay. I forget what the third one was used for. Hopefully, not chaining up women and torturing them.”

  She drove through town, past St. Catherine’s Church, the oldest church in town, with it’s white spire and rustic cemetery.

  “Listen, Mia.” Beck shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “About this morning. I’m really sorry for what I said to you on the phone. It was inexcusable. It’s none of my business what you do on your time or on anyone else’s.”

  “It’s okay. I know how worried you are about Lisa. And it isn’t as if I hadn’t set myself up for that sort of reaction.” She tried to smile. “Ironic that I’d spent the night guzzling club soda instead of my usual beverage of choice. Which, given the way the night turned out, was probably a pretty good thing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My cousin Connor came home last night. He was making us dinner when he realized some sensor he’d set in the basement windows had gone off. Guys got ears like a Doberman. I never heard a thing.”

  “You mean the security alarm went off?”

  She nodded. “When we went downstairs to look, we found that someone had been cutting away the glass in one of the basement windows.”

  “Someone tried to break into your house?”

  “Connor’s house. We’re not sure what they were after.” She bit her bottom lip. “He thinks it couldn’t have been him, because he says no one knew he was back in the country.”

  “Which leaves you.”

  She could feel his eyes on her.

  “Why would someone be after you?”

  “I don’t know that anyone was.” She kept her voice steady and her eyes straight ahead. “It could have been just a random burglary.”

  “Do you believe that?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Connor doesn’t.”

  “So that’s why you were late.”

  She nodded.

  “Jesus, I feel like a real jerk,” he said. “Giving you so much shit about not answering my calls…”

  “Hey, it’s okay. Given the circumstances, you were entitled to be a little testy.”

  “‘A little testy’ is very kind.” He touched her shoulder. “Why didn’t you call me?” he asked softly.

  “Everything just happened so fast. One minute, Connor and I were in the kitchen, getting dinner ready, the next minute, he’s flying down the steps with his gun in his hand. Before I knew it, the troops started arriving. Besides, there wasn’t anything you could have done from here.”

  “You had some backup?”

  “Our boss sent five or six agents out to process the scene. There were some prints near the basement window where the prowler had been kneeling, I guess while he was cutting away the glass. Then they found some tire prints down the road, which they casted and are trying to match.”

  “I’d be interested in knowing what kind of tires they were. They’re going to try to match them to a vehicle, right?”

  “They’ll try. Sometimes tires are too generic to get a good match, but other times you get lucky. We had
a case last year where we caught a kidnapper by tracing the tires he’d just bought for his van. The treads were so deep, we knew they had to be relatively new, and there were only three places in the area that sold that particular type of tire. We had the guy in less than a day.”

  “What happened to the victim?”

  “It was already too late for her,” she said simply.

  “Take the next left.”

  She turned onto a one-lane gravel road that led into a wooded area beyond which she could see the river.

  “I have an APB out on Lisa’s vehicle, and I’ve notified the other local agencies and the state. But I want to call in your people to help find her.”

  “Done.” She picked up her phone from the console and tapped in some numbers.

  While the phone was ringing, they entered a clearing. A long clapboard building, its paint faded and peeled down to the grayed wood, stood off to their right. The St. Dennis cruiser was parked alongside the building, and Mia pulled up next to it. Beck got out and met Hal halfway between the two vehicles.

  “Put me through to John if he’s in, please,” Mia said when Mancini’s secretary answered the call. “And if he isn’t there, please find him.”

  24

  Beck pushed open the door of the old building and stepped inside onto ancient chipped linoleum that at one time might have been red. Beneath his feet the floor sagged noticeably, and the stale humid air smelled of wood that had long since gone to rot. A wasp flew repeatedly at a dross-covered window and somewhere down the dark corridor in front of Beck, something scurried along the ground.

  Mia finished her call and went into the building a minute or two later. She raised her sunglasses to the top of her head so that her eyes could adjust to the light. From up ahead, she could hear footsteps-Beck’s and Hal’s-and when she came to a large square room, she stood still to place the others. Off to the right, her senses told her, and she followed, treading carefully on the weak floor.

  “Jesus God in Heaven!” Hal seemed to choke with pain.

  “Oh, God no.”

  “Beck!” Mia called to him as she ran, following their voices.

  “Sweet Holy Mother of God.” Hal was transfixed before the figure that lay sheathed in shiny transparency on the bed.