Brody

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Good.”

  The photographer finally showed up and started taking pictures of the body and the rug. It was cheap and dirty, and might hold more clues if he could get her out of it soon. Then he asked if he could unwrap her from the rug when Johnny, the photo guy, went to take pictures of the knife.

  Her purse was right on her chest where her breasts were. Handing it to the cops, he smiled when they said they’d been looking for it. Not so far as he’d seen. All they were doing was drinking coffee and talking.

  “Good job, Doc. We’ve been looking.”

  Her name was Mary Bennett. Wally told him her brother’s name was Easton Hunter. The cops behind him continued to speak, but not to him. He started to unwrap the rest of her body. She was heavier than he thought she looked, and he pulled the rug off her as the cops talked about the husband.

  “Husband, I’m betting. I know Wendel Bennett. He’d beat his own mother if he could get by with it.” That solved that part.

  When she was finally free enough to get her out of the rug, Brody pulled it off her lower waist. What he found there not only scared him for how long she’d been there, but also about what he had to do now. Brody yelled for help.

  The baby boy was tiny, but he’d not been hurt by the beating that took his mother’s life. An ambulance was called for, and when it arrived, Brody had not only given the baby a good bill of health, but had also taken a sample of his blood, as well as that of his mother. In no time the child was on his way to get cleaned up, and Brody’s crime scene took on another aspect altogether.

  The husband had tried to kill both the mother and child, and that would be murder as well as attempted murder to add to his list of crimes. Brody finished up now that he had examined her entire body, and he sent her to the hospital for more tests. Tests on her body would tell who her child belonged to, and perhaps how long she might have been in labor before she was killed.

  After he was finished cleaning up, Brody told the police all he could figure out. Some that the woman had told him too. When Wally talked to Mary, she’d told him what had happened up to her death.

  “I believe that she was in labor and wanted her husband to more than likely take her to the hospital. I would guess that something happened that pissed him off. I don’t know, perhaps he didn’t want to be bothered and wanted her to drive herself. Which, as you know, would have been dangerous to them all.” Conley, one of the police officers, asked Brody if the rug was from their home. “I would say so, yes. I mean, she wasn’t killed here, so that would be my guess.”

  It was her rug and she had been killed at home. Mary told him through Wally that she didn’t have anything for the child either. Her husband had drank it all up when he found her stash of money from when her mom had passed away.

  “Are you going to contact her brother?” Conley said that Cattie was going to do it for them. “She’ll be good at it. Very compassionate.”

  Driving himself to the hospital, Wally and Mary rode with him. She was still talking through Wally, but he could hear her too. When she mentioned that she had another child at home, he called out to Cattie to let her know.

  I’m headed to the house now. How old is the child? Mary told him that her daughter was six, but she was very backward and terrified of men. I’ll take care that the men with me stay away. Does she know where her husband might be? That would help me a great deal if I know that he’s not there.

  She said that he’s more than likely at the bar at the other end of town. Cattie said she’d send someone there to pick him up. He cut her throat, Cattie. That takes a strong, sick man to be able to look someone in the eye and kill them. Especially his very pregnant wife.

  I’ll have him in a cell before he can do much of anything to my men. I warned them that he’s to be considered armed and dangerous. We’re at the home now, Brody. And it looks bad. He didn’t know what that meant, but figured that Cattie wouldn’t exaggerate on this one. I’m entering with my men. I’m not going to take a chance that the house will fall down on me while inside. Also, there is no heat that I can detect, nor any running water. Christ.

  It took her ten minutes to get back to him. And then all she said was that she had the child. It must have been bad too, because he could hear the anger in her voice. Tyson told him to wait in the ER, that Cattie wanted him to have a look at the child. All Brody asked was, is the little girl still alive.

  No.

  The finality of that single word broke his heart. Six. No older than his own son. And when the cruiser came in the ER parking lot, he was waiting for her when Cattie came in.

  The child was wrapped in a blanket and nothing more. The blood seeping through it had saturated not just it, but Catties uniform as well. She said that she’d brought the child in because the house had been so very cold, and that she didn’t want evidence on this one to go unchecked.

  Brody took the small bundle to the closed off room and pulled the blanket away. He wanted to cry. Brody wanted to find the man responsible for this and kill him in much the same way he had his wife and child. When Mary appeared this time, she had her daughter with her and she looked happy. Brody thought that she would be, knowing that her daughter was with her, but all he could think about was a life cut so terribly short. Cattie joined him in the room with a photographer and a recording device.

  “I’d like for you to tell me the cause of death, Dr. Downs. And give me an estimate on how long she’s been deceased.” He nodded at Cattie, while she tried her best and failed at remaining professional and not crying. “She’s so tiny, isn’t she?”

  “Yes. For a six-year-old, I’d say that she’s about twenty pounds underweight, as well as short in stature.” He asked Cattie where she’d been. “That would explain it if she’d spent a great deal of her little life in a cage. There are marks here that tell me she was also chained up, and since she’s still wearing a diaper, I’d say that her mental capacity was stunted.”

  He said that while he couldn’t give her a good time of death, what with her being nearly frozen through, he’d say she’d been gone about six or seven hours. About the same time for the mother. Then he told her the cause of death.

  “Starvation, with a secondary cause being excessive blood loss. Her being so weak, it would have made her death quicker. She must have tried to claw her way out or something, and cut herself up badly. I don’t know for sure, but I’d give that my best bet.”

  Mary and her daughter came to stand next to him and Cattie. The little girl didn’t speak, but the mother could now.

  “I found her this morning before I went into labor. I was going to get to the hospital and tell them what Wendel had done to her, putting her in that cage and all.” Cattie asked Mary if she had tried to get help. “We got no phone out there, and the heat and water has been off for about three months. It was okay when it was warmer, but it’s been too cold for much since the weather changed.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Mary nodded and looked at the body of her daughter, then over at her own body. “Your son, he’s doing well. Did you want to see him?”

  “I can’t go to him. He might see me, and I don’t want him to see his momma like this. Will you call my brother? He can take care of him for me. When he finds out about what Wendel did to us, he’s going to come running.” Cattie told her that she’d do it as soon as she left there. “He’s a good man, Easton. Wendel, he never liked him because he is gay. But I never cared. He was my only brother, and I loved him all to pieces.”

  “I have a brother who’s gay. We’re twins.” Mary said that her and Easton were just like normal. “Is there anything that I can tell him for you, Mary? You know the rules, but I can tell him anything about how you thought of him.”

  “I did think of him all the time. I had his number with me when I was killed. I was going to go to him. I don’t know how. Wendel took all my money. I didn’t even have a single diaper for my little man.�
�� She didn’t cry, but they could tell that she was heartbroken. “You tell Easton that I thought of him all the time. And that we was coming to see him. We didn’t get to, but I still love him more than anyone in the world but my kids.”

  “I’ll tell him that.” Mary started to fade away, then came back. Brody could only imagine what this hanging around was costing her. Mary told her the name that she wanted the baby to be called if Easton had a mind to. “Alexander Patch Hunter. I’ll tell him for you.”

  Then she was gone, taking her daughter with her. Brody knew that she’d be around, and that he could call on her if he wished. But he was going to try very hard to let her have peace now. And see that her little boy got the best of care.

  Going home that night, he held Jordan for a long time, well after he’d fallen asleep. And when he put him to bed, Aaron helped him tuck Jordan in. He had told his lover what had happened, and it tore them both up to know that someone had done that to a child. To starve—it would have taken a long time for the little girl to surrender to death like that. And her desperation to have tried so hard to get out to eat something, anything, would have taken all she had left.

  ~*~

  Easton sat in his living room and sobbed. His sister was dead, and so was Peaches. His niece hadn’t had a good life, no more so than Mary had. Easton had called her daughter Peaches since the first time he’d seen her. And it was also the last.

  Getting up to make arrangements to go to them, he thought about all the things that he wanted to do to Wendel. The fucking bastard was going to pay, and when Easton caught up with him, he was going to make him suffer. But for now, he had to think about the child, the little baby. It had only survived because his mom had been killed and someone had found her in time.

  Packing up his clothing, he made a mental note of the things he was going to have to take care of. Funeral arrangements would have to be made for Mary and Peaches. Then there would be the house that he would have to clean out, as well as seeing about getting Alex some things to come home with him in. There was nothing, the police officer had told him. No bed, no clothing, not even a bottle to take care of Alex when he came home. If he came home.

  “She was coming to you, we think. Your number was clutched in her hand when her body was found. I don’t know for sure, but I’d say it was a safe bet.” Easton thanked the cop. “I’m so sorry, sir. I truly am. But we’re looking for Wendel now, and we’ll have him in custody well before you arrive.”

  He didn’t want her to find him. Easton wanted that pleasure for himself. While he had no idea how either of them had died, he had a feeling that it hadn’t been fast, nor without a great deal of pain. Mary had suffered much in her lifetime. More than she should have, he thought.

  Taking the first flight out of New York, Easton thought of his lover Todd. He’d been killed a week ago by a bunch of homophobes. They had murdered him, then left his body out in the cold weather under a snowbank, hoping, he supposed, that he’d never be found. But he could and did find him, because Todd had changed him to a wolf several months ago. He had found him only hours after he’d been shot once in the head.

  Now, he was alone. And more alone than he’d thought just hours ago. His sister and her family were gone as well. Easton had no idea what he was going to have to do to be able to press on. There was little to nothing left in his life that mattered, he thought.

  Todd hadn’t been his mate. They were just two lonely gay men that had hooked up several years ago. Todd had lost his mate long ago, and wanted companionship. Easton hadn’t found anyone that he wanted to spend more than ten minutes with until Todd had come along.

  The trip was short and uneventful. By the time he had gotten him a car and driven to the little town where his sister had lived, it was too late to do much. So, taking a hotel room, Easton settled in after telling Cattie that he was there.

  Easton thought about going to see the baby, but he didn’t want that right now. He would take care of him if he could figure it out, but he wasn’t sure that he could raise him. Easton knew less about children and babies than most people knew about how to program a computer. And Easton had built a great many computers before he started designing games for different systems.

  It was nearing midnight when he got up and decided to go to the hospital. It was about an hour from where he was, so he worked out his list for the morning. Easton knew that he wasn’t going to get any sleep for a few days anyway.

  His cell was ringing when he pulled into the hospital parking lot.

  “I thought you’d still be awake. We’ve got Wendel in custody, and he’s not talking, for which I’m glad. I don’t think I want to hear his excuses for what he did.” Easton asked Cattie what the cause of death had been for Mary. “He slit her throat, then wrapped her up in a rug. He dumped her about forty minutes from where he was living with her.”

  “And my niece. I’m sorry, but I only met her the one time, and she was just a baby. I have always called her Peaches.” She told him that her name had been Margaret. “Margaret. What was her cause of death?”

  He wasn’t sure she was going to tell him, and that made his imagination run wild. When she finally told him, Easton laid his head on the steering wheel and cried. Starvation. Bleeding out. What a way for a little girl to have met with her death. When he had better control of his emotions, he asked her what else she could tell him.

  “Margaret had been caged like an animal, we found out. Mary was getting food help for a while, but she stopped coming in to apply and that soon ran out too. Knowing her husband, with what I’m finding out about him, he more than likely didn’t take her to sign up or something.” Easton said that sounded like something he’d do. “She had a garden, we saw, and there were frozen things in the freezer. There was no heat in the house, nor running water. Wendel would go into town and take a bath at the homeless shelter every once in a while. I think that’s why no one knew that he had a family. It would be just him. And so far, I’m not finding anyone that had seen Mary during her pregnancy with either child.”

  “My sister, she would have tried to take care of them. I don’t think she would have let Margaret go without food, even if she had to take some of her own to give it to her.” Cattie told him that she had no idea, as no one had known about her. “I should have come home more often. It would cost me, not in money, but in dignity to see her. But it was never at the house or any place where Wendel would find us. He didn’t think that me being a homo, his words, would have been tolerable to him. So we’d sneak around and hide from him. I think the last time I was there was when Peaches was born. Five or six years ago.”

  “She was six. A friend of mine is doing the autopsies tomorrow. And I’ll be there with him. He’ll have a better picture of what might have been going on long term with that. Wendel, as I said, isn’t talking, but we’re finding out a great deal about him regardless.” Easton told her that he was going to see the baby. “You’ll meet Brody. He’s the doctor that delivered Alex and figured out what we know now.”

  Going into the hospital and finding the nursery, someone must have left word for him to be shown up, as the hours for visiting had long since passed. Dr. Downs met him at the elevator when it opened.

  Almost as soon as he shook hands with the man, he felt a comfort that he’d not had since Todd had been killed. And when the bigger man pulled him in for a hug, Easton fell apart. Before he could gather himself, he was taken to an empty room and held. It was just what he needed, someone to help him with his grief.

  After he was able to gather himself, Easton told Brody, as he was asked to call him, that he wanted to see the baby. He was gowned up and taken to a private room where the cradle-like thing was placed. The nurse was dismissed, and Brody handed little Alex to him. Easton fell in love at first sight.

  “From some of the tests I’ve been able to run on him, I’d say he’s about three weeks early. Trauma brought his labor on, I’m
guessing, and we were lucky to have been there when he came into the world. Otherwise he might have frozen to death.” Easton was handed the tiniest bottle he’d ever seen to feed Alex with. Brody continued talking, telling him things that he might need to know. “He weighs a little under seven pounds, which is a good weight for him. And he’s in good health, considering that Mary hadn’t had any care during her pregnancy.”

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do now.” Brody said that he hadn’t thought he would—it had been very quick with everything going on all the way around. “I’m going to hang around for a few days, to see to things for my sister’s family. I’m going to have to find me a place to stay, however. The hotel where I’m staying is booked up for the holiday, and they were only able to get me one night.”

  “You’ll come stay with me. And before you even think to tell me no, where would you live if not for my home? The house is plenty big enough for you and anyone else.” Easton thanked him. “And, because you will be staying, you will of course have dinner with us. Everyone will be there for Thanksgiving dinner.”

  “Thanksgiving. I completely forgot about that. I don’t want to put you out.” Brody assured him that he wouldn’t. They were catering it. “Good for you. All right. But only because I’ve literally nowhere else to go.”

  When Alex had drank his bottle, Easton held him for a little while longer. He was so tiny, he thought, and could see traces of his sister in his little face. Easton decided right then that he’d raise Alex as his own, even if he had to hire a bevy of housekeepers.

  “And I’ll tell you about your mom all the time. Your sister too.” Easton wondered if he could get some pictures, if there were any, and decided that what he didn’t know, he’d make up. Just so the boy would have a better picture of his family than Easton knew of. “I love you Alex. Very much.”

  Before You Go…