The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum

by Wendy Saunders

  ‘I know that,’ Olivia smiled softly at him, ‘we’ll all make sure she’s taken care of.’

  ‘Well as fun as this has been,’ Louisa interrupted, ‘I’m done. My back is killing me.’

  ‘You want to go home baby?’ Tommy slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her in close. ‘You can put your feet up and I’ve got a pint of Ben and Jerry’s with your name on.’

  ‘Sold,’ she smiled before turning to Olivia. ‘I saw Karen Wilson yesterday, she said you’re in for your next appointment on Monday?’

  Olivia nodded, stroking her belly softly.

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘So are you going to find out the sex of the twins? You should be far enough along now for her to tell,’ Louisa asked curiously.

  ‘Probably,’ Olivia shrugged, ‘but it doesn’t really matter. They’re going to be girls.’

  ‘You never know,’ Louisa replied.

  ‘I’ve traced my family history back past Hester and the founding of Mercy, nearly five hundred years’ worth of history and it all that time no boy has ever been born into my family. I hardly think I’m going to be the exception to the rule.’

  ‘If you say so,’ she shook her head in amusement, ‘and don’t forget Miller’s baptism next Friday.’

  Olivia nodded again.

  ‘We wouldn’t miss it,’ she smiled. ‘I’m glad Jackson’s got the adoption finalized at last.’

  ‘Me too,’ Louisa leaned in and gave Olivia an awkward hug as both of their bumps collided.

  ‘I’ll give you a call on Monday,’ Olivia laughed as she pulled back.

  Her hand automatically sought out Theo’s without conscious thought, her fingers entwined comfortably with his as they watched their friends disappear into the crowd.

  ‘I’m glad he’s taking over the store,’ Theo muttered.

  ‘Yeah?’ Olivia turned toward him, studying his face quietly.

  ‘Nobody expects someone like him to be a shopkeeper, but the truth is he loves it. He didn’t realize it at first, he was just trying to help out Mrs Bailey but it fits him like a well-worn sweater.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘He told me,’ Theo shrugged. ‘We talk, but even if he hadn’t said anything I’d have known. You can just see it, whenever he’s at the store, he’s relaxed and sociable. I think he’ll do well. I just hope his mother doesn’t make things too difficult for him.’

  ‘She’ll come around,’ Olivia told him, ‘Rosamund Linden may be a formidable woman, she may put on airs and graces and she may have entertained a little fantasy or two about her son becoming mayor and moving on into politics, but the truth is she loves Tommy. He’ll talk his way around her and eventually she’ll think it was her idea in the first place.’

  Theo laughed lightly.

  ‘I hope so,’ he shook his head. ‘Lately there seems to have been nothing but divided families.’

  ‘Is that your way of asking me about my dad?’ she cocked a slender eyebrow questioningly.

  ‘He’s been calling almost nonstop.’

  ‘I know,’ she sighed, ‘I’m sorry. I’ve been dodging his calls and leaving you to deal with him.’

  ‘I don’t mind dealing with him,’ he replied. ‘I’m worried about you, it’s not good for you to stress on things. Perhaps you should clear the air between you.’

  ‘I guess,’ she conceded, ‘I just…’ she shook her head in frustration, ‘there’s no reasoning with him when it comes to my mother. He’s so bull headed.’

  Theo’s mouth curved in amusement.

  ‘Don’t say it,’ she blew out a breath, ‘I know I’m just as bad. That’s probably why we hammer at each other. We’re too alike sometimes, but in this case I need him to back off. I’m not about to start playing happy families with my mom but I do need her at the moment.’

  ‘Are you sure Olivia?’ he asked seriously. ‘Why is it suddenly so important for you to know about your family’s past? You didn’t want to know before, you said it yourself. You weren’t going to be bound by your family’s mistakes. This is our life, it’s about you and I, and the choices we make.’

  ‘I know what I said,’ she replied quietly, ‘and I hate to admit it but that was probably my arrogance talking. I thought I knew exactly who and what my family were. Its only now I realize I’d barely scratched the surface and what lies beneath, does not make for pretty viewing.’

  ‘So why subject yourself to it?’ he squeezed her hand reassuringly. ‘Walk away from the Wests and all the baggage that comes with them and we’ll cut our own path.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she shook her head, ‘maybe, however it isn’t just about finding out about my family. The truth is, my mom has spent the last twenty years not only pursuing the book but also learning everything she can about Nathaniel. If nothing else, we need that information from her if we are to have any hope of stopping Nathaniel and protecting the book.’

  ‘Nothing’s ever simple is it?’ he smiled slowly.

  ‘No it’s not,’ she shook her head, her eyes narrowing slightly as her gaze locked on Roni who was steering a path back through the crowd toward them with a man and a woman following behind her. ‘Looks like it’s time to be charming again,’ she plastered on a bright smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  ‘Olivia,’ Roni smiled, ‘Theo, I’d like to introduce you to Simon Flores, the Governor of Massachusetts and Corinne Coleman, the head of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Simon, Corinne this is Olivia Beckett-West and her husband Theo.’

  ‘Governor,’ Theo nodded extending his hand, ‘Ms Coleman.’ He shook both of their hands politely in turn as did Olivia.

  ‘Mrs Beckett-West,’ Governor Flores smiled.

  While his tone may have been perfunctory, his dark eyes flashed with interest, pausing on her for just a fraction longer than necessary.

  He was a tall man, with a well cut figure, highlighted by his perfectly tailored Tux, a flute of champagne grasped casually in his manicured hand. His dark hair was shot liberally at the temples with gray and his clean shaven face bore a few lines and crinkles around his deep brown eyes, but it was still the countenance of a handsome man.

  But handsome or not, it was a face Olivia instantly distrusted. She couldn’t have said why exactly, there was just something about him. His eyes held too many secrets and his smile was just a little too wide. He may have been projecting an affable enough persona, it may have even worked on anyone else, but she grew up in the foster system. If it had taught her nothing else, it was how to read people quickly and accurately and besides, after everything that had happened to her over the past year and a half, she now seemed to be hardwired to instantly distrust strangers.

  ‘Governor,’ she nodded, ‘Ms Coleman.’

  ‘I’m glad we have a chance to meet,’ Corinne Coleman told her with a polite smile, ‘I’ve read your work. It’s quite an impressive body of work for someone of your age.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Olivia replied.

  Corinne Coleman was another strange new face. Her voice was a few octaves lower than she would have expected, giving her voice a low kind of feminine husky quality to it. Dressed elegantly in a subdued blue, her ash blond bob-length hair was tucked neatly behind one ear and secured with a clip decorated with dozens of tiny crystals.

  ‘I enjoyed your speech Olivia,’ the governor cut in. ‘I may call you Olivia yes?’ and not bothering to wait for an answer he continued. ‘I can see how passionate you are about history, it’s no wonder you and Miss Mason here are such good friends. I expect your love of history comes from your family. It must be very thrilling for you to be directly descended from one of the founding families of Mercy.’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ Olivia replied non committedly.

  ‘I also understand your father was a Professor of History, before…well, before…’

  ‘Before he murdered my mother you mean?’ Olivia replied blankly. Okay, so it wasn’t true. No
t only had her father not murdered her mother, a crime for which he’d been convicted and sentenced for, but her mother was also in fact very much alive and a murderer herself. Of course, no one outside of her close circle of friends knew the truth, so she’d had to put up with the sly little digs and questions.

  ‘Simon,’ Corinne chided, ‘there’s no need to bring up all that unpleasantness. It’s very impolite.’

  ‘Of course,’ he replied, his eyes darkening with a complex emotion Olivia couldn’t quite put a name to. ‘My apologies Olivia, I didn’t mean to be quite so ineloquent. I certainly didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.’

  ‘You didn’t,’ Olivia replied coolly.

  ‘Well then,’ he answered in return and for a moment an awkward silence descended as Olivia and the Governor’s gazes locked.

  ‘Um,’ Roni flushed, ‘Sorry to interrupt, but I believe Alistair Mayberry would like to ask you a few questions Governor. He’s writing a piece for the local paper which he runs. Would you mind?’

  ‘Not at all,’ he tore his gaze from Olivia and flashed Roni the consummate smile of a politician complete with blinding white, perfectly straight teeth. ‘Shall we?’

  He offered his arm to Corinne who took it, her grip light but possessive. They both nodded to Olivia and Theo before being steered away by Roni who glanced back over her shoulder with an apologetic expression.

  ‘I don’t like them,’ Theo glared at their retreating backs. ‘I don’t trust them, either of them.’

  ‘You’re becoming as jaded as I am,’ Olivia chuckled.

  ‘I saw the way he looked at you, and him mentioning your father? That was no accident; he’s not as smooth as he likes to think. He wanted to gauge your reaction.’

  She looked up at her husband thoughtfully, he was getting almost as good at reading people as she was or maybe he was just as paranoid as she was. But then again, given the situation they were currently in perhaps it was just as well they were suspicious of strangers.

  ‘You ready to get out of here?’ she asked.

  He nodded.

  ‘You?’

  She scanned the unappealing crowd of strangers mingling and making inane small talk.

  ‘Definitely.’

  ‘Come on then,’ he pulled her closer, wrapping his arm around her waist and dropping his head so that his warm breath brushed against her ear. ‘I want my mouth on you and this time I don’t want Roni interrupting.’

  8.

  Mac sipped his coffee and glanced down the alley. Yellow crime scene tape stretched between the two buildings either side, while one of his cops stood guard to make sure no one got too close and contaminated the site. He glanced down to the woman sprawled grotesquely across the filthy ground, surrounded by trash and rat feces.

  Her skin was chalky white, her blue eyes glazed as they stared sightlessly in death. Her pale blonde hair fanned out around her face in a mockery of a halo. She was too young, too beautiful to have endured such violence. He tried to avert his gaze from the sickening wound which had obviously claimed her life, but it was unavoidable. Her whole chest cavity was torn open, leaving what was left of her internal organs horrifically displayed.

  ‘What have we got?’ Mac asked, turning from the corpse toward Jake and taking another sip of his coffee, hoping the strong bitter liquid would wash away the foul taste in his mouth.

  Jake looked up from where he was kneeling on the ground. A red leather purse dangled from one gloved hand as he searched through her wallet.

  ‘Julia Nash,’ he dropped the items one by one into a bag and watched as a forensic technician sealed it with red tape. Standing slowly he made his way over to Mac, ‘money and cards still in her wallet and she’s still wearing her watch and ring. I’d say robbery’s out for motive.’

  ‘I’d say it’s out period. You ever heard of a robber inflicting this kind of wound?’

  Jake shook his head. ‘It’s the kind of thing I’d expect to see if we were dealing with a serial killer.’

  Mac briefly glanced across at her ring finger, noting the slim silver band upon which a small tasteful diamond was mounted.

  ‘Married?’

  ‘Looks like,’ Jake nodded.

  ‘Husband been informed?’

  ‘Uniform’s on the way over to break the news now,’ Jake shook his head, his blue eyes locked on the woman as she was loaded into a black body bag. ‘Jesus, hell of a way to go.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Mac murmured, ‘hell of a way.’

  They both stood in silence watching as the bag was zipped shut and she was loaded onto a waiting trolley.

  ‘Sachiv,’ Mac nodded as the young Indian M.E stepped up. ‘What’s the word?’

  ‘I don’t know what to tell you Mac,’ he shook his head in disgust. ‘The wound’s a mess, it’s like a small bomb went off in her chest cavity. I can’t even begin to guess the cause of death until I can get her back to the morgue and perform the autopsy.’

  ‘There’s nothing you can give us?’

  ‘Right now I can’t even tell you what made the entry wound,’ he replied, ‘but I’ll put a rush on it and get back to you as soon as I can.’

  ‘Can you estimate a time of death at least?’ Mac frowned.

  ‘That I can do,’ Sachiv replied. ‘Liver temp puts the time of death at about twenty four hours ago.’

  ‘Thanks,’ he nodded. ‘Let us know the results as soon as you have them.’

  Sachiv threw them a mock salute in answer and turned to follow the trolley as it clanked and moaned its way ominously across the uneven ground.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Jake asked as they walked down the alley, passing by little numbered, yellow plastic markers.

  ‘I’m thinking we should start with the husband, see if he has an alibi for the time of death,’ Mac replied, tossing his empty cup into the trash. ‘I also want to know why she wasn’t reported missing.’

  ‘It was only twenty four hours though Mac,’ Jake replied. ‘We wouldn’t have filed a missing person’s report until she’d been gone for forty eight.’

  ‘I know,’ he frowned, ‘but if my wife didn’t come home I’d sure as hell want to know why.’

  Jake nodded and they both ducked under the tape. As they reached the end of the alley they looked up at the sudden sound of a familiar voice.

  ‘Hey guys,’ Olivia greeted them.

  ‘Olive,’ Jake smiled, glancing across to his best friend who stood with his arm slung comfortably around her shoulders. ‘Theo, what are you guys up to this early?’

  ‘Sonogram appointment,’ Theo answered.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Olivia frowned as she glanced around both him and Mac, catching sight of the crime scene tape.

  ‘Got ourselves a murder,’ Mac told her.

  ‘Really?’ she scowled.

  They hadn’t had a murder in Mercy since her mother had gone on a rampage and carved up several young men to make a body to trap the demon Nathaniel in. Before that Mercy had been a quiet town with one of the lowest murder rates in the US, that is if they discounted the string of 1994 murders, which were also committed by her mother.

  ‘Is it anything we should be worried about?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘I doubt it,’ Mac replied. ‘Don’t worry yourself Olivia,’ he told her easily, ‘it’s probably just your run of the mill psycho, nothing supernatural about it.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ she chewed on her lip thoughtfully.

  ‘I’m sure,’ he nodded.

  ‘Okay,’ she blew out a breath, ‘we should get going or we’ll be late.’

  ‘I’ll see you later then,’ Jake looked over to Theo. ‘We still on for poker tonight?’

  ‘Yes, Tommy’s coming over too.’

  ‘I thought he was staying at home with Lou?’ Jake frowned.

  ‘He was,’ Theo chuckled in amusement, ‘but Louisa’s kicking him out. She said he’s driving her mad hovering over her like a mother
hen. Roni and Olivia are going over to keep her company.’

  ‘Cool,’ he turned to Mac, ‘you’re still coming right?’

  ‘I don’t know if I can afford it after last time,’ his eyes narrowed suspiciously on Theo, who blinked at him innocently.

  ‘What happened last time?’ Olivia asked curiously.

  ‘I was lucky to walk away with the shirt on my back thanks to your husband.’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Theo smiled slowly as he took Olivia’s hand. ‘Come on we should go, I’ll see you both tonight and don’t forget the beer.’

  Mac scoffed.

  ‘If you’re going to take my money the least you can do is buy the beer,’ he called after them and was rewarded with Theo’s laughter echoing down the street.

  ‘Come on Mac,’ Jake turned toward his car, ‘we should go talk to the vic’s husband.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Mac muttered sourly and turned to follow him.

  Isabel West watched with interest from the shadow of a building across the street. Her gaze followed her daughter and her husband for a few moments as they wandered down the street in the direction of the medical center. The new Chief of Police and Jake climbed into a car and eased out of the parking space, pulling a U-turn and heading out in the opposite direction, but she barely spared them a passing glance of interest. No, her attention was fixed on the body bag being loaded into the coroner’s van. Her gaze flicked back to the yellow tape stretched across the alley. She needed to get a closer look.

  She waited patiently until the coroner left, closely followed by a marked forensic vehicle. Finally the cop who was guarding the alley was relieved; the forensics unit obviously finished with the crime scene. A clean-up crew had arrived and she knew once they’d finished there would be no evidence of a crime left. She had a very small window of opportunity.

  She crossed the street quickly and as the cop turned to the clean-up crew to help them with their equipment she slipped under the tape and headed into the alley. Passing silently past the little yellow plastic markers she headed back toward the dumpster where the body had been found. She ignored the blood splattered gruesomely across the dirty ground and up the exposed brick walls. It didn’t interest her. She wanted to know why not how she’d been killed. As she stood in the alley and felt the shift and hum in the air, she had her answer.