She took the fork and jammed it into the hard dirt to make yet another line that memorialized her time in this hellhole. As she pulled the fork downward, it stopped, stuck on what she assumed was a skinny root or a small rock.
Using her hand and the fork, she dug and brushed away the hard dirt, paying no attention to what dried earth crumbled to the floor at her feet.
As the object that had stopped her progress with the fork came into view, she stumbled backward, shock washing over her as she stared in disbelief, in stunned horror, at the skeletal hand she’d exposed.
She didn’t scream. Her horror was too great for a scream. Her throat had closed, making even drawing the next breath nearly impossible as she realized she wasn’t the first to be in this terrible place, and whoever had been here before her hadn’t survived.
Chapter 12
It was just after seven when Marlene, Roxy and Steve sat at an island in the kitchen of the Dollhouse restaurant. The place was now closed for the night and the help had all been sent home.
Marlene had already spent an hour upstairs in what had been Roxy’s private quarters earlier in the day, telling her sister about her marriage to Matt, about the abuse she’d endured and about the loss of her baby.
The two sisters had hugged and cried together and Marlene had realized how wrong it had been for her to keep the secret of her past from the people who loved her the most. The tears had been cathartic, and Roxy’s loving support had only made Marlene realize how much she needed her sisters close to her. She knew she’d receive the same support when she had a chance to open her heart and bare her soul to Sheri.
She’d suddenly recognized that she’d been distant and closed off from the very people who would offer her unconditional love and support.
Maybe it had been part of what she thought she needed to be her penance, to keep herself isolated and alone, but the minute Roxy had wrapped her in her arms, she’d felt the rightness of telling and sharing everything that she’d been through.
She only wished Tommy, Steve’s son, was with them. She hadn’t taken the time to get to know the young boy who would become her new little nephew when Steve and Roxy married. At the moment he was with Steve’s mother until Roxy and Steve went home.
“I hate keeping you two so late,” she said.
“We don’t mind,” Roxy replied. “I just hope this scheme the men have come up with works.”
“It will as long as you and Sheri stay away from the Wolf’s Head Tavern for the duration,” Steve replied.
“Right, because we hang around there so much,” Roxy replied drily. “I’m not about to do anything to jeopardize Marlene’s safety.” She elbowed Steve in the ribs. “And you better make sure nothing happens to her, either.”
“Don’t worry. We’ve got it all under control,” Steve said with a certainty that Marlene wanted to embrace.
“I still think that little creep Michael probably has something to do with all this. I just don’t understand why he didn’t shoot at me when I fired him from here,” Roxy exclaimed.
“Maybe because he knew you could catch bullets in your teeth and spit them back at him,” Steve replied jokingly.
Marlene laughed. There was no question that Roxy was the tough one of the three sisters. But her laughter didn’t last as she thought of the night to come.
“Stop looking so worried,” Roxy said and reached across the table to take one of Marlene’s hands in hers. “You’re going to be safe at the tavern, and Steve and his partners are going to get the creep who has disrupted your life. And if I find out it’s your ex-husband, then I’m going to have Steve hold him so that I can kick him in the ass so hard his teeth shoot out of his head.”
Marlene squeezed Roxy’s hand. “You always had the best ideas as a big sister.” She pulled her hand from Roxy’s and instead wrapped both hands around the mug of coffee in front of her. “There just seems to be so many variables that can go wrong. What if somebody sees me going upstairs in the tavern? What if somebody follows Jimmy after he picks me up here?”
“What if Jimmy went to talk to Travis this morning and instead he got trashed drunk and is sleeping it off on the floor behind the bar?” Steve countered.
“Jimmy’s a professional. He wouldn’t do that,” Marlene replied.
“Exactly. We’re all professionals and we’re going to make sure you’re safe and sound for as long as it takes,” Steve replied.
“Now that I’ve finally decided to have a life, I’m eager to get to it,” she replied.
“I hope that means you’re really going to open up that bakery,” Roxy said. “I’d be happy to give you some seed money to get started.”
Marlene’s heart expanded with love and gratitude. Somehow she’d gotten lost between her marriage and now, but she felt found and had a new purpose, a new zest for life that she was eager to explore.
All she had to do was survive a killer.
They all jumped as Steve’s cell phone rang. He answered, said a few words and then clicked off. “Jimmy is parked out back and ready to take you to your new living quarters.”
Marlene darted a gaze toward the windows, surprised to see that darkness had fallen, and the blackness of the night caused a shiver of apprehension to race up her spine.
“Then I guess we’d better not keep him waiting,” she said.
They all got up from the table and Roxy grabbed the duffel bag while Marlene picked up her smaller overnight case, sobered by the fact that Steve drew his gun and preceded them cautiously out the back door.
It was just as sobering to step out into the darkness and see by the headlights of Jimmy’s car that he also had his gun drawn, ready for anything that might come out of the night at them.
It was far too real and yet Marlene had the crazy impulse to laugh hysterically, as if this was some sort of a prank and that at any moment somebody would jump out of the shadows and giggle about scaring them all half to death.
But the laughter never made it to her lips. She knew there was no benign prankster behind this. Those had been real bullets that had been directed at her, any one of which could have caused her death.
Steve hurried her to the backseat of Jimmy’s car, where once again she found herself crouched down on the floorboards. Her bags were placed in the trunk and then Jimmy took his place behind the steering wheel.
“You okay?” he asked as they pulled away from the Dollhouse.
“I’m getting used to checking out the carpeting in the backseat of cars,” she replied.
Jimmy laughed. “Hopefully this is the last time we’ll need to move you. The next time you’re going anywhere, it will be back to your apartment where you belong.”
“I can’t wait for that to happen, and I hope that it won’t be long before we have some answers about Aunt Liz, too.” Her heart squeezed tight as she thought of her beloved aunt, the woman who had raised her since she was four.
“We still haven’t been able to locate your real mother. She’s either so far underground she hasn’t left a trace or she’s dead.” Jimmy’s voice held an apologetic note. “Sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s okay. Ramona has been dead as far as I’m concerned. In all the time we’ve been with Aunt Liz, she’s never tried to contact us. We’ve never gotten a letter, a phone call or anything from the woman who gave birth to us. She probably is dead.”
There was little emotion attached to any thoughts of the woman who had kept her for the first four years of her life, then had abandoned her to Aunt Liz. Her aunt had filled her heart with such love, such security, Marlene considered that Ramona had done her a favor by walking away from her.
“I’m supposed to call Travis when we get to the tavern and he’ll make sure the coast is clear to get you upstairs without anyone seeing you,” Jimmy explained.
/> “Just point me in the direction of safety and I’ll run for it,” she replied.
“Just inside the kitchen door and straight up the stairs. There are two rooms up there and I put you in the one closest to the stairway. I have to warn you, it isn’t the Ritz.”
“That’s okay. I’ve never been to the Ritz,” she replied.
“You’ve been great through all this, Marlene. I know it’s been tough. It hasn’t been that long ago that Roxy was going through something similar. You Marcoli women are made of steel, except maybe for Sheri. She seems to me like she’s a cream puff.”
Marlene laughed. “Don’t let her fool you. Beneath that cream-puff exterior is definitely a will of steel and a stubborn streak. Sometimes I think she’s the strongest of us all.”
Instead of holding thoughts of Sheri, her head filled with thoughts of Frank once again. Even though she was slightly aggravated by the fact that he hadn’t shared with her what must have been a terrible trauma, even though she’d told herself, told him, that making love together wouldn’t change anything, it had.
She wanted to make love again. Not with just any man, but with Frank. She wanted to see his face across the table first thing in the morning, talk about his work and her potential decision about opening a bakery.
She wanted to share things with him, things like her feelings and her thoughts. She wanted him in her life as more than the victim of a crime whom he had accidentally made love to.
But he’d insisted those were things he didn’t want in his life. He had shown no doubt that he wanted her on a physical basis, but he hadn’t invited her into his life in any meaningful way.
“We’re here,” Jimmy said from the front seat, and his words set her heart racing with anticipation. If they all got this right, then she would be safe for the time being. But if there was a single glitch, then who knew what might happen next?
She listened as Jimmy made a phone call to Travis. When he was finished, he hung up and turned off the car engine. “Let’s move,” he said.
She rose from the floor to see that they were parked along the side of the large building. Before she could unfold herself and get out of the backseat, Jimmy already had the trunk open and had retrieved her bags.
“Follow me,” he said curtly. Despite the fact that he carried pink bags, there was no question that he was in cop mode as he led her just around the corner to the back door of the tavern.
There was nobody around the door, no kitchen help hanging out or sneaking cigarettes. Marlene knew Travis had a small kitchen staff, that he offered little real cooking, preferring to focus on the bigger moneymaker of selling lots of booze.
The kitchen was empty as well, and Jimmy led her directly to a narrow staircase. They climbed the stairs silently and then turned into the first doorway at the top of the stairs.
It would have been easy to be depressed by the bedroom that would be her new home for an undetermined amount of time. The double bed was covered with a faded, worn yellow bedspread. The wooden tops of the nightstands were both ringed with the memories of drink glasses and scarred by old cigarette wounds.
There was a chest of drawers with a small television chained to the top, and the carpeting looked original, a worn gold shag. The bathroom was tiny, sporting only a stool, a sink and a shower.
Still, it smelled of fresh lemon polish and disinfectant, as if somebody had taken the effort and time to do a little cleanup before her arrival.
“I told you it wasn’t great,” Jimmy said, a frown creasing his forehead.
“It’s fine.” Marlene set her overnight case on the bed and smiled at him. She’d make it fine because she had to, because they were basically out of any other options.
“There’s a dead bolt on the door. I suggest you keep it locked at all times. Travis will bring meals up to you, and if anyone asks about renting the rooms, he’s going to tell people they’re under renovation and temporarily unavailable.”
Marlene looked around the room again, her gaze going to the window, where beyond the glass she could see nothing but the blackness of night. “What’s my view during the day?” she asked.
“Nothing much. A field with some trees. If anything should happen and for some reason a fire would break out, there are only two ways back downstairs...the stairway from the kitchen and a fire escape that can be used from the other bedroom down the hall.”
“Let’s hope nobody sets fire to the place,” Marlene replied.
Jimmy nodded and backed toward the door. “I’m not sure when one of us will actually come back up here to physically check in on you, but I know Frank will keep in touch through your cell phone. I’ll just get out of here and let you get settled in.”
With a murmured goodbye, Jimmy left the room. Marlene immediately threw the dead bolt to lock herself in and it was only then she noticed the raucous noise that vibrated the floor beneath her feet.
The pulse of music mingled with voices and laughter, and she had a feeling she’d be getting far more sleep during the daytime hours than at night when the bar was open for business.
As she unpacked her things, hanging clothes in the tiny closet that smelled faintly of cedar, she wondered how long she would live this nomad existence. How long was she willing to hide out, move from place to place and remain disconnected from her home and her family, from the dreams and plans that had grabbed on to life inside her?
Not much longer, she realized. At some point this madness had to stop. If Frank and his partners couldn’t identify the potential danger, then eventually she was going to have to resume her normal life. She was going to have to bait a killer and hope that when he struck she was prepared to, if necessary, save her own life.
* * *
Jimmy had come back to the office and told Frank that Marlene was safely tucked away at the Wolf’s Head Tavern. “It went without a hitch,” he said as he sat in the chair in front of Frank’s desk. “Nobody saw us go in and nobody saw me leave. She should be safe there.”
“But she can’t stay there forever,” Frank replied. “And I got a call this afternoon that her ex-husband had just arrived home after a Caribbean cruise. The officer who called me told me he had all his paperwork in order to prove that he’s been on a ship in the middle of the ocean for the last ten days.”
“Damn, so that takes him off our short list of suspects,” Jimmy replied. He leaned back in the chair and raked a hand through his thick black hair. “I was hoping it was him. At least he made some sort of sick sense.”
“Trust me, I feel the same way. Excluding him doesn’t leave many names on our list.” Frank blew out a sigh of frustration. “I don’t know how to fix this. It’s just like Liz Marcoli’s case...a crime with no viable suspects.”
“The search team didn’t find anything today?” Jimmy asked.
“Nada, but they still have plenty of work ahead of them. Starting tomorrow, they’re going to work with Jed Wilson and his dogs, as the area they’re searching is getting more wooded.”
“What the men can’t find, the dogs will,” Jimmy said, and Frank knew he was talking about Jed’s cadaver dogs finding Liz’s body.
He rubbed his forehead wearily. He didn’t want Liz Marcoli dead. He didn’t want Marlene in danger, but damned if he knew what their next move should be.
“Maybe if we could figure out what happened to Liz we’d get some clues as to what’s going on with Marlene,” Jimmy said.
Frank frowned. “There’s been no reason so far to tie the two cases together. There’s more evidence to assume that the Agnes Wilson cold case is tied to Liz’s disappearance. Those two cases are far too similar to ignore.”
“So, where do we go from here?”
“I guess we go back to the beginning.”
“And where, exactly, is the beginning?” Jimmy asked.
Frank’s fr
own deepened with thought. “We need to take a closer look at Edward Cardell. Marlene told me he’s been calling her, trying to set up a meeting with her. We also need to see if there’s a connection between him and Patricia Burns, if maybe the two of them got rid of Liz and now for some reason are trying to make Marlene disappear. Marlene was in and out of her aunt’s house often. Maybe they think she saw something she shouldn’t have, heard something incriminating. It’s possible it’s something Marlene doesn’t even know she knows.”
“Maybe we should look closer at Abe Winslow and Jennifer Fletcher. They both work daily with Marlene at the shop. I guess it’s possible one of them has a secret grudge they think can only be handled by killing her.”
Frank nodded and pulled in front of him the note that had been taped to the police-station door. AN EYE FOR AN EYE. The bold red letters stared back at him, silent yet filled with condemnation, with rage and the promise of retribution.
“I believe that she told me everything there is to know about herself,” he said more to himself than to Jimmy. Marlene had shared her darkest secrets, her incredible inner pain and sense of guilt. “Surely if somebody hated her enough to want her dead, she would have a hint of who that somebody was.” He looked up at his younger partner.
Jimmy shrugged. “From what I’ve heard, she’s kept herself pretty isolated since she returned to Wolf Creek. Other than working at the shop, I haven’t heard any rumors of her dating or socializing, except with her sisters and her aunt.”
“That’s basically what she’s told me,” Frank agreed. His mind filled with the memory of her warmth against him, the soft sighs she’d emitted when they’d made love. She was beautiful on the outside, but she possessed an incredible inner beauty, as well.
The idea of anything happening to her was too horrible to contemplate. The thought closed his throat with a sense of panic. He consciously tamped down the horror, knowing that allowing such dreadful thoughts to possess him would be counterproductive.
Once again his gaze went to the note before him. “I feel like something is about to explode, like somehow this note upped the stakes. I think our perp is getting anxious.”
Lethal Lawman Page 16