by Unknown
His single goal for the morning had been to purchase a super-sized cup of the blackest, strongest, gut-melting coffee he could find and enjoy a peaceful morning. However, his and Lacey’s quarrel, and Gertie Mae’s message put an end to his objective. And he just knew Gertie was about to declare war on him.
“Get a move on, Hot Link. The stiff’s gettin’ stiffer by the minute.”
Danger started the engine, jerked the stick into first gear, and grabbed the mike again. He keyed it, let out the clutch, and swung the Jeep north in the direction of the Pine Cone Inn. “Roger, Gertie, I’m on my way. And stop calling me names.”
“Why would I do that? I heard you have a big one. You ain’t shy now are you, Sheriff? ‘Cause, I sure ain’t.”
“Gertie?”
“Yes, Hot Sausage?”
“Humph!” What could one possibly say to that? “Just shut up.”
Danger sped toward the inn. He mulled over Gertie Mae’s message as the highway passed in a blur.
Apparent homicide?
A useless term in his viewpoint. The victim was either dead or alive. The victim was either murdered or died of natural causes. It usually wasn’t hard to tell the two apart, especially when there was a lot of blood at the scene.
But Gertie Mae was thrilled—not by someone’s death, but by the fact she actually got to dispatch the news of a gruesome, apparent homicide.
As if reading his mind, Gertie Mae’s excited voice boomed across the radio again. “I say apparent, Weenie Dog,” she announced cheerfully in her gruff voice, “because you haven’t arrived on the scene yet to make the official statement it’s a murder. When the fuck you gonna do that?”
Danger scowled. “You’ll know as soon as I know, Gertie, and if you drop the ‘F’ bomb one more time, I’m taking away your mike.”
“Try it, Needle Dick. I wear a size ten shoe and your sweet wife told me a long time ago how to bring you to your knees with a good, swift kick to your nuggets.”
Danger growled. One day he was going to rip the dispatch radio right out of the wall and wrap the cord around Gertie Mae’s neck. “My sweet wife has a big mouth.”
“Huh. Let’s hope it’s big enough. Like I said, I heard you’re hung like a swamp mule.”
“Jesus, Gertie. Shut the fuck up!”
“Then hurry your hot ass over to the apparent murder scene.”
Danger flung the mike in the seat next to him and snapped his teeth together. There’d be no living around his deputies now. He bet every one of them had their radios on and were laughing their asses off at his and Gertie’s heated exchange. The problem was she always got the last word.
The old lady was a gray-haired terror. She was like a Doberman Pincher and now it seemed his wife had plotted against him with the old hag. Gertie Mae loved making announcements over the radio.
No matter how many times he told her the radio was for official use only, she ignored him. She announced births, deaths, weddings, baptisms, grocery sales, coupon days, yard sales, and anything else she thought the citizens of Rimrock should know, over the airwaves.
She was steadfast and loyal and deep down he cherished the old lady. She was part of the community, a part he loved and protected. He didn’t have the heart to fire her. He knew if it came right down to it, Gertie Mae loved him like a son and would step between him and a bullet without hesitation.
She had a heart as big as the moon and pulled everyone to her hefty bosom like a magnet and offered comfort in a big hug.
And a brutal murder was big news. Hell, it was big news when someone broke a fingernail in Rimrock.
He whipped the Jeep his wife bought him for a wedding gift three years ago into the parking lot of the local Inn and saw a crowd already gathered. His night shift deputy, Blake Hardesty, who was also his brother-in-law, had managed to contain the crime scene, but it was looking iffy.
Yellow crime scene ribbon fluttered in the morning breeze. Blake had strung it around a large area of the Inn’s parking lot.
“Crap.” He killed the Jeep’s motor. That’s all he needed, a crowd trampling around his crime scene. “You people get back from here. There’s nothing for you to see.” He eyed one of his younger deputies who was talking to the pretty, young waitress, Karen Monroe, from the Blue Goose Café, and snapped, “Jake! Get this crowd back, now!”
Karen looked up, gave him a flirty smile and a little wave. Danger grinned and walked toward her. “Aren’t you supposed to be on the job?”
“I wanted to see you,” she said breathlessly. “I need to talk to you. Privately. I have to go, but I wanted to give you this.” She pressed a note into his hands. “I wasn’t going to tell you, but I decided you should know.”
She turned and hurried away.
Danger held the note tightly in his palm. Fuck! He had a bad feeling things were about to get worse. The ache between his eyes pounded. He dreaded reading what words Karen might have written down. He opened his hand and stared at the paper for the longest time. Drawing in a deep breath, he unfolded the note and read.
~Meet me at our place tonight.
I’m three months pregnant.
I love you,
~K
Danger swallowed hard. That was it then. Karen was pregnant. His marriage to Lacey had to end. Hell, he didn’t love her anymore, anyway. He wanted her out of his life.
He ignored the irritated mutters from the crowd, and the swarm of onlookers moved back as Jake hustled to follow his sharp commands to get them moving. Danger tucked the note inside his jeans pocket and headed toward his brother-in-law.
Inside the barrier of the yellow ribbons, Jillian Remington’s flashy T-Bird stood out like a red banner. “Aw, shit. What a way to start the friggin’ day. This entire morning has gone to shit.”
“You got other problems besides a stiff on your hands?”
“No. Why?”
“I saw Karen pass you a note. I thought you ended it with her last month.”
“I did. I tried. But hell, you know? I want her so much, I–I’ve still been with her a few times.”
“And?”
“She’s pregnant. Three months.”
“Yours?”
“Yes, of course.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Shit, Danger. What are you thinking? You’re going to lose Lacey, man.”
“You think I care? I love Karen.”
“You’re insane. Have you told Lacey?”
“Not about Karen. She knows I want a divorce, just not the reason why. I’ll work it out with her. Right now, you and I need to concentrate on what’s happening here.”
Blake shrugged. “You need to concentrate on keeping your dick in your pants, although I suppose it’s a bit late for that now.”
“It is.”
“Your business. Your affair.”
Danger nodded. “It is. I don’t want to hurt Lacey, but I don’t see any other way. I have to tell her about Karen.” Sometimes, things just weren’t meant to be. His an Lacey’s marriage had been doomed right from the start.
Blake nodded. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Danger nodded and eyed Jillian’s car. He hated like hell to have to report to Jace something might have happened to his stepmother.
He took in the crime scene with a quick, practiced eye. He noted a white extended cab Chevy truck crammed between the pine trees at the end of the Inn. “Black as Satan’s cave back there at night,” he surmised aloud. “You have any idea how many times I’ve told Joe Walker to have a light installed down there?”
Blake shook his head and frowned. “You really want me to answer that?”
“Hell, no. What I want is for you to quit banging my sister.”
Blake snorted. “She won’t leave me alone, man. She wants another baby. I aim to please my woman.”
“Uh-huh.” Danger frowned. “So what have we got here?”
Blake, a rather quiet, brown-eyed man with heavy, droopy
eyelids which reminded Danger of a Bassett Hound shook his head. “Not sure. It’s gruesome as hell.”
His deputy never got in a hurry. Not when talking and not when walking. He had the patience of a saint. And he adored Anna Leigh, Danger’s only sister.
Anna, who’d taken one look at Blake, promptly fell in love, then asked him to marry her, taught first grade at Rimrock Elementary. She and Blake married a month after they met, produced a daughter nine months to the day of their wedding, and boasted they were working on a second.
They truly adored each other and included in their small circle was their four-year old daughter, Gidget. His sister was happy. In Danger’s book, that was the only thing that mattered.
Blake looked around at the blood spatters on the ground and grimaced.
“You can leave if you want, Blake,” Danger said. “I’ll understand.”
“No, I’m all right. I knew one day I’d work a murder scene again.”
He nodded. “Yeah, me too.”
Hank Hardesty, a deputy he’d lost three years earlier and Blake’s brother, had been brutally murdered. Hank hadn’t died easily. The killer had scalped the deputy while he was still alive. The crime scene was the most gruesome they ever worked and something neither of them wanted to remember. Nope. He didn’t figure they’d ever forget the events that led to the discovery of the female bodies in the cave.
Hank’s death was one of the reasons Lacey and he discovered a serial killer was working in the area three years earlier, a psycho who still hadn’t been caught. He was grateful the killer had moved on and no more female bodies had been discovered in his county.
“What do we have, besides an apparent homicide?” Danger asked.
“Got Rodney Blake sitting over there in his pick-um-up truck, deader than a spawned salmon. Someone for sure did a number on him. Throat slit from ear to ear, belly split wide-open, guts strung across the seat like a damn necklace. Whoever did it, took his sweet time carving him open and playing with his innards.”
“Shit,” Danger said in a somber tone. “Hank was gutted.”
“Yeah.” Blake nodded. “That was the first thing I thought of, but that’s where the similarity ends between the two murders.”
“Jesus.” Danger blew out a puff of air at the condition of the body in the truck.
Blake coughed. “Yeah. I don’t think religion had much to do with it. The perpetrator sliced off Rodney’s cock and shoved it in his mouth. Truck seat’s soaked with blood. His throat is so deeply severed, his head is nearly decapitated. I’d say from the amount of blood, this is our murder scene.”
“Christ. Someone dispatched to tell Mary Lou?”
“Your brother. Coe left not five minutes ago. You know what a pushover he is when it comes to pregnant women. He was worried about Mary Lou being pregnant and all. Course, we got the mayor’s wife as pumped up as Mary Lou. Cynthia will probably take Rodney’s demise as hard as Mary Lou, but she’ll have her husband to comfort her.”
Danger shook his head. “Think the mayor finally discovered those boys he’s so proud of aren’t his and killed Rodney?”
Blake shrugged. “Maybe. But I kinda think he’d have to be blind as a bat not to see every one of those kids is the spittin’ image of Rodney.” He snickered. “Hell, the little shits even sound like Rod when they talk. I heard a rumor once that Mayor Hemphill had a problem getting it up. Maybe he’d rather claim the kids than have everyone know he’s a limp dick.”
Danger coughed and scratched his jaw. “A fate worse than death?”
“It would be for me. Anna Leigh would kill me if my dick went and died on her.”
Danger laughed. “Damn, Blake. Aren’t you off duty, yet?”
“An hour ago, but since Coe had to make the run out to Mary Lou’s, I figure you’d need my help with this, since Jillian might be somehow involved.”
One hand on his hip, Danger surveyed the area. “Who called it in?”
“The motel manager. He got curious about Jillian’s car since she hadn’t checked into a room.”
“The shiny little T-Bird’s smack in the middle of the crime scene.”
Blake nodded. “You know anybody who hasn’t had a piece of that?”
“The car?”
Blake grinned. “That, too.”
“Me. Never touched the stuff. Had plenty of opportunity.”
“Who didn’t?”
“That is one scary woman. Cold as a fish. Eyes like a shark, always eyeing a man’s crotch like she’s measuring the size of his dick or something,” Danger said.
“She has a hot pussy she’s willing to offer any man regardless the size of his cock.”
“You do her?”
“Years ago,” Blake replied. “Back when I didn’t have better sense than to nail an available piece of ass. She was still married to old man Remington at the time. Newly married. We had a summer fling out at Willow Creek. She knew what she was doing and did it well. The woman knows how to milk a man’s cock with her mouth, too, gave me my first blowjob. She went down on me without battin’ an eye. It was like she’d been doin’ it for years. Christ, she couldn’t have been more than eighteen when I banged her.”
“I guess I missed a good thing then.”
“Nah. Be glad she didn’t get her claws in you, like you said, she’s a friggin’ shark. No warmth. Not a scrap of humanity. Cold, man. You know? Hell, I was fifteen at the time, and she scared the shit outta me. Wouldn’t let me use a rubber, kept sayin’ she wanted me to knock her up so she could lay the blame on Jace. I fucked her all summer and never used a thing to prevent her getting pregnant. Don’t know how I kept from putting a kid in her. Thank God, I didn’t.”
Danger rubbed his jaw. “Jace? Why the hell did she want to have Jace’s baby? He was only fourteen and she was married to his old man.”
Blake shook his head. “I don’t know. I think she had a thing for younger boys. Can’t tell you how many of the high school boys screwed her. I’m not talkin’ ‘bout the older, senior boys, either. I’m talkin’ freshmen, fourteen, fifteen years old.”
Danger nodded. “I heard about it. She never appealed to me. I always wanted a tiger in my bed, a woman with some spark to her eyes, feisty as hell, and a temper to match. Not a cold fish with a roving eye.”
Blake snickered. “You get what you wanted, Sheriff?”
“I thought I did, once. Lacey’s going to Alaska again soon, on another photo shoot.”
Blake frowned. “Are you sure you want to end your marriage to her?”
“Yes. We don’t have a marriage. She’s always gone.”
“Maybe you need to go somewhere, just the two of you, tell her about Karen, and discuss how you feel.”
“That’s part of the trouble, I don’t want to be alone with her, touch her or even talk to her. My skin crawls whenever I’m near her. I can’t even bear to kiss her anymore.”
Blake cleared his throat. “Man, that’s a lot of heavy shit. Lace is a good woman. She loves you.”
“I think that’s part of the problem, Blake. I don’t love her anymore.”
“Jesus, Danger. You have a son to think about.”
“Why do you think I haven’t already filed for a divorce? But now I have a new baby on the way. I have to think of Karen and this baby.”
“Do you want this baby? Want Karen?”
“God, yes! The baby wasn’t an accident. I mean, we didn’t plan it, but we didn’t do anything to prevent it from happening either. Karen and I both knew the risks. I can’t wait to be free of Lacey.”
“What has she done? Why did you stop loving her?”
Danger rubbed his eyes and snapped, “Damn it, Blake, she hasn’t done anything wrong, other than never being there, being home. I guess I got used to her being gone most of the time. I don’t know why I don’t love her anymore. I–I, everything she does irritates the hell out of me. I can hardly bring myself to look at her. I keep finding myself thinking I just want her out of my life. I want her
gone.”
Blake frowned. “Jesus, Danger, maybe you need to see a doctor. You’ve been having these headaches. You don’t even sound like yourself anymore.”
“I’m fine, but I have an appointment in Missoula in a couple of weeks. Karen’s going with me for the weekend. We’re going to rent a motel, spend Christmas together.”
“You’re leaving Lacey to spend Christmas alone?”
Danger shrugged. “I spent the last two Christmas’ alone. Besides, you take an appointment when you can get one. I’ll try to find someone to stay with her.”
Blake shuffled restlessly. “She isn’t going to like spending Christmas without you.”
“I don’t give a fuck what she likes anymore.”
“You’re making a big mistake, my friend.” Blake slapped him on the shoulder. “Are you feeling okay? You look kind of pale.”
“I’m fine. I just have a headache.”
“Well, if you can finish up here, I’m going home, crawling in bed with your sweet sister, and make her an offer she can’t refuse.”
“Don’t tell me what it is.” Danger forced a laugh to ease the tension that had sprung up between them. “I don’t want to know.”
“Sure you do.” Blake snorted. “Catch ya next shift...Donkey Dick.”
“Shut the fuck up and get outta here.”
Blake snickered. “You gotta get Gertie Mae under control or next thing, she’s gonna be wearing your badge.”
“I know.”
Danger watched his brother-in-law drive away and felt some of the tension fade away. He had no doubt his sister was waiting on Blake with open arms. An hour later, Danger pointed his Jeep in the direction of the Dancing Star. The second thing he hated most about this job was informing family their loved one was dead or missing.
Driving down the ribbon of winding highway, he realized at least dead was something and closure could be obtained. But when someone was missing, as in the case of Jillian Remington, he didn’t relish the prospect of telling Jace his lovely stepmother might have disappeared or been murdered.