Cutting Ties (Book 2) (Piper Anderson Series)

by Danielle Stewart

  Chapter Eight

  Bobby felt like a man alone on an island. All the people who normally surrounded him with support had deserted him. Betty managed to work up a lecture every time they were together. She’d told him about the dangers of choosing anything over love and the pitfalls of misplaced priorities. Jules had flat out called him an ass and nearly took his head off with a loaf of bread she hurled in his direction. Michael, though more sympathetic than the others, seemed disappointed in his friend.

  Bobby was trying hard to live by the mantra, I had no choice. But the longer he spent isolated from his friends, the more time that passed since he’d last heard Piper’s voice or touched her silky skin, the more doubt crept in. It was like a vine infiltrating, taking over. On the flip side, the guys at work and even Agent Carlson kept slapping him on the back and telling him he’d be ready for detective in no time. His captain, the blustery narcissist, Baines, had pulled Bobby aside and given him a bottle of single malt scotch. His way of thanking him for making the whole department look good, Bobby guessed. And yet none of that mattered when the people he cared for most thought he was a jackass.

  He knew Betty had gone to visit Piper that afternoon and though he wanted to ask for an update he reconsidered. He knew Betty would probably remind him that he’d given up his right to know how she was doing. Tired of the silence that had taken over Betty’s house since she had gone upstairs to bed, Bobby turned on the television, looking for an escape. The nightly news was just starting, and he found himself staring at the beautiful anchorwoman as she began to speak. He watched her face, stoic and serious, staring straight into the camera.

  “This is Maria Santos with WNC4 news with an exclusive, late-breaking story.” That was it, Bobby thought; that was the reason for the sparkle in her eye. She was about to be the first to break a big story, and she was having a hard time containing the gloating look on her face. “The town of Edenville has been rocked lately by corruption and accusations of misconduct on multiple levels. The residents here seem divided in their belief and support of those accused. We were all shocked to hear the news about Judge Lions and his association with the late Officer Rylie. Most of us thought that would be the story of the decade here in Edenville, but I’m here to report that the drama continues. Through a source very close to the investigation, we have learned of a break in the case of the two young women assaulted on campus this week. They have confirmed a link between the attacks and the infamous Railway Killer. For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, the Railway Killer is one of the most notorious serial killers in recent history, and he has been very successful at evading the law over his twenty-five year reign of terror. Our source has confirmed the presence of the FBI, more specifically, the task force created to catch the Railway Killer.

  “So why is Edenville, a normally safe town, suddenly a tumultuous battleground filled with predators of all kinds? This is the question on many minds tonight as people realize the dangers lurking around them. Though we’ve been unable to confirm this, our source spoke at length about the one surviving victim of the Railway Killer. We’re only able to speculate at this point, but it sounds as though the survivor may have settled right here in Edenville, and in the process, brought with her a kind of evil this town has never seen before. I’ve met with several Edenville residents tonight, and they are on edge and frustrated.” Bobby watched with sweaty palms and a racing heart as the camera cut away to some previously recorded interviews.

  There was his barber, Tony, standing awkwardly in front of a large microphone that Maria had shoved in his face. He stammered as he spoke into it, putting his mouth closer than it needed to be. “I think it’s nuts. Why would we let someone into this town to act as bait for a killer? Whoever it is should just be on their way and take whatever messed-up history they have with them. We don’t need no killers here, we already have enough junk going on as it is.” As he finished speaking, the camera cut again to Maria who was looking with a forced seriousness into the camera.

  “Well Tom, that’s the sentiment from most of the folks I talked to tonight. They all felt the last thing this town needed was added attention. More importantly, they wanted to know why the streets weren’t blanketed with police and government officials. There is a serial killer on the loose here in Edenville, yet it seems to be business as usual? We’ll be back in the second half of the hour tonight to keep you informed as this story progresses. I’m hoping to have a statement from Captain Baines any moment. Until then, Tom, back to you.”

  Bobby slammed down the remote. If he’d been at his house instead of Betty’s he likely would have launched it across the room, not caring what it might break. This was the problem with the media these days, he thought to himself. It wasn’t about being right, it was about being first. Why weren’t the streets littered with police trying to catch a serial killer? Because there wasn’t any clear evidence that he was even here. The FBI’s medical examiner and forensics team were still going over the evidence to compare the two attacks on campus. No one was confirming that the Railway Killer was in Edenville, but now there it was up on the news for everyone, including the killer, wherever he was, to see. Everything that Piper had warned him about was coming to fruition, and the knot in his stomach yanked tighter as he realized this would be one more thing to drive a wedge between them. Damn you, Maria Santos, and your ego.

  His phone began to vibrate and dance its way across the coffee table. He could only imagine who it was. Piper calling to accuse him of ruining her life, Jules trying to scream some new profanity at him, or maybe it was Betty calling from the phone upstairs to tell him to get the hell out of her house. As he read the screen he realized it was worse than that.

  “Agent Carlson, do you have any news?”

  Chapter Nine

  After Betty had left, Piper felt her head swirling. She sat again, motionless on the couch and thought through everything Betty had told her. As the hours ticked by she curled her legs up to her chest and rested her head on the arm of the couch. Sleep took her away like a retreating wave pulling with it a tumbling seashell.

  Piper was nine years old, scared, and alone. Her parents had disappeared, and a weekend that had started as carefree and liberating for her was now terrifying. It wasn’t the first time her parents had left her alone with no indication as to where they were going, no money, and no food. But as night fell on the third day without them, panic started to bleed in.

  She normally loved the quiet that came with their absence. She would take whatever money she had managed to find, steal, or borrow and stock up on penny candy, junk food, and an apple or two, just to make sure she was being responsible. That food was gone now. All her money was spent. She had assumed her parents would have returned by now from whatever misguided adventure they had been on. Last time they’d spent two days running drugs into the suburbs in order to pay off a debt. Prior to that, they had taken their last hundred dollars to the casino because they were “feeling lucky.” But never had they been gone this long.

  Then a bang on the door, a loud thud that clearly meant business. She scurried to her room, climbed up to the top of her closet and squatted on the shelf above the door that was meant for storage. It was flimsy but if she balanced her weight just right it would hold her. From her hiding spot she heard the noise again, a repetitive banging followed closely by the kicking in of her front door.

  The voices of strange men filled her house, “Tear this place apart, every inch. I know they have our money. Take anything we can sell, smash anything that isn’t worth it.” And they did just that for more than an hour, often coming dangerously close to discovering Piper in her hiding spot. The mayhem had ended and the men had left, yet Piper remained crouched on the top shelf of her closet for the entire night, sobbing and shaking.

  The next morning, with her eyes burning from salty tears and lack of sleep, she slid herself down and landed heavily on the floor. The pins and needles in her legs took a full five minutes to taper off. She cre
pt through her house, looking at everything that had been broken or overturned, seeing empty spaces where things had been stolen. When the front door swung open, she jumped with fear, assuming the men had returned for her. Instead she was met with the strung out red eyes of her parents dragging themselves in from their last drug binge.

  “What the hell did you do?” her father shouted, running his hands across his hair and pulling at it in that manic way that punctuated his mental fragility. Piper couldn’t right herself. She couldn’t come to terms with her fear, her anger, and then her desire to hug her parents out of gratefulness that they had returned. At nine years old, she still needed people, unable to make it on her own. But her only people were these people, and it was impossible to balance the myriad of different emotions.

  “These men came,” she said, her voice shaking with the emotions she was drowning in.

  “And you just let them do this?” her mother asked, pointing around the room at the damage. “Why didn’t you stop them?” she yelled, picking up a work boot that had been pulled from the closet and left by the door. She cocked it back and launched it at Piper who crossed her arms and covered her face. Her forearms took the brunt of the blow as she tumbled backward. She heard the stomping feet of her father crossing the floor and she braced herself for more.

  Instead of feeling the thumping of his fists against her body, Piper felt the wet nose of Bruno nudging her.

  She woke, the sweat beading on her neck and back. These damn dreams were not just frightening things to relive, they were forcing her to come to terms with the contradictions of her life, the confusion. How could she lie there, being beaten for not protecting her house from grown men and, on some level, still be happy? She was so relieved not to be alone, not to have been abandoned, that the wrath unleashed on her was something she almost welcomed.

  This had been the third nightmare she’d had since coming to the cabin, and each time Bruno had woken her just before the most traumatic parts of her memories could flood in. He was a rescue dog, apparently even in dreams.

  As she continued to shake off the fog of her dream and the complex feelings that came with it, Bruno lifted his head and sniffed the air. It was normally the first indication that he sensed something coming. Then his ears perked up, and Piper sat motionless, allowing him to do his job. He dismounted the couch and began to bark loudly at the door. Then headlights cut through the darkness of the long driveway, and once again Piper put her hand over the alarm system’s panic button. But it only took her a moment to recognize the rumble of Bobby’s engine as the shiny red truck pulled in. Unlike Betty’s visit, Piper did not instantly call off Bruno’s alert. She allowed him to bark loudly and growl, looking up occasionally at her for direction. Not until Bobby had his hand hesitantly ready to knock did she give Bruno the command to relax. She pulled open the door and, just as she had when Betty visited, initially stayed silent.

  “I have some news, and I wanted you to hear it from me,” Bobby said, aching to hold her and hoping she was feeling the same thing. They could be mad at each other, he understood that, but it didn’t erase what they shared.

  “I’m getting most of my news from Maria Santos now. You don’t really need to fill me in. I already heard they confirmed it was my father,” Piper shot back, annoyed by how happy she was to see Bobby.

  “Maria’s an idiot. Whoever her sources are, they’re wrong. I just heard from Agent Carlson. The medical examiner and the forensics team have ruled your father out of the two attacks on campus. The weapon, the victimology, the scene—none of it point to your father. It’s not him, Piper.” Bobby was still standing in the doorway, hoping she’d invite him in. And hoping that monstrous dog wouldn’t try to eat him.

  “Thanks for coming by to let me know. Tell Agent Carlson I’m sorry she came down here for nothing and that she’ll have to excuse me for not saying goodbye.”

  “She’s convinced you should still take the offer of witness protection. Even if the news comes out tonight and announces they have ruled him out, it will still get sensationalized. He’ll know you’re here.”

  “It’s so strange, I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere before,” Piper said with a look of feigned confusion. “Oh that’s right, this is what I told you would happen,” she concluded forcefully.

  “Do you need to hear you were right? Is that what you’re waiting for?” Bobby had told himself he wouldn’t get argumentative, he’d keep his voice calm, but he was faltering.

  “No, I guess I’m waiting for the marshals to come pick me up again so I can start a new life somewhere else. Please tell Betty, Jules, and Michael it was a blast, but I can’t see them anymore. And tell them I’m keeping the damn dog.” Piper stepped into the house and slammed the door hard enough to have Bobby stumbling backward.

  No, he thought, not a chance, Piper. He pulled the door open and let himself in the house, praying the dog wouldn’t go right for his throat. He shouted, “I had an obligation.”

  “Please stop. We are never going to agree on this. I love you, Bobby. I let myself love you, and you chose your badge over me, so now I’m the one who’s going to suffer.”

  “Do you think I haven’t been suffering? I love you, too.” He slammed his fist down on the table next to the door and Piper jumped. She hated when people did that, it immediately reminded her of her father. Bruno didn’t seem to care for it either. He went from sitting comfortably next to Piper’s firmly planted feet, to standing at attention. Bobby took notice of both of their reactions and calmed himself. “We can make this work.”

  “How do you propose we do that? Should I just stay here and wait for my father to show up? Look over my shoulder every time I’m at the grocery store or the gas station? I don’t see how I can stay here. I have to leave.”

  “I agree,” Bobby said, resignedly. “But I can go with you. I know you think I chose my career over you, that I was trying to be a big shot or further myself. I wasn’t, I was worried for the safety of the people I’m sworn to protect. Let me prove it to you. Let me leave all of it behind and come with you.”

  “Sure, Bobby, let’s get a package deal and take Betty, Jules, and Michael, too. They can’t talk to their family or friends anymore because they have to start new lives. I’m sure they’d be real open to it. And don’t think you just get to move to Idaho and you’re a cop there too. It doesn’t work like that. This isn’t a vacation, you become whoever they tell you to be.”

  “Why are you fighting me so hard on this? Help me find a way to make this work.” Bobby knew he didn’t have the perfect solution but he wanted to find one together.

  “You’re thinking about the logistics of how to make this work. Don’t you see there’s a much bigger obstacle here than where we live, or what our names are? We are fundamentally different. We can’t build a life if we can’t even see eye to eye on the basic principles of right and wrong. There is nothing you can tell me that would convince me you did the right thing here, and there was nothing I could have said that would have stopped you. That’s a recipe for disaster, and I’ve had enough disaster in my life. We can’t make this work. I need you to give me my space. I need you to let me go. Just go.”

  Bobby’s phone rang, and he ignored it, his eyes locked on Piper’s. He half hoped they’d be filled with tears but her chin was high and her shoulders back. She meant what she was saying. As he started to speak Piper’s phone rang, and she also ignored it. Then his rang again, and their locked eyes changed from annoyance to worry.

  “Did Michael just call you?” Bobby asked, now looking down at his phone. Piper grabbed hers and nodded her head in confirmation. “He’s calling me again,” Bobby said, putting the phone to his ear.

  “What’s up, Michael?” Bobby asked, still trying to read Piper’s face for any sign that she may come over to his side. He stood silently, listening for several moments with furrowed brows as he attempted to understand what Michael was saying. “Slow down, how long has she been gone?” He paused again, and
Piper could feel her heart thudding in her chest. This was bad news, she knew this was bad news. “That’s just how she is, Michael, trust me. I know her like the back of my hand. She runs off whenever things don’t go her way. I haven’t had a chance to fill you in yet, but the FBI says the attacks on campus aren’t linked to the Railway Killer, so that should ease your mind a bit. I don’t think we have any imminent danger. I’m sure she’ll be back soon.” Bobby was now rolling his eyes at Piper as though he couldn’t believe how much Michael was blowing things out of proportion.

  “No,” interrupted Piper shaking her head. “You don’t know Jules like the back of your hand. You think she’s this emotional train wreck, but she’s trying really hard to be better. I don’t think she would have just run off tonight. How long has it been since he’s heard from her?”

  “About six hours. She isn’t answering her cell phone and he’s already checked with Betty,” Bobby mouthed to Piper, his phone still at his ear as Michael continued to insist something was wrong. Piper looked sternly at Bobby, not satisfied with his opinion. Feeling outnumbered once again, Bobby relented with a sigh and responded to Michael. “Okay, I’ll call into the station and put an alert out for her. I’ll drive around a couple of her favorite haunts to see if she’s pouting anywhere. You stay at your place, and let me know when she comes back, because trust me, she’s coming back.”