She shook her head again.
“Good girl.” He turned off the stove and put the burned eggs on a plate. Sliding them in front of her, he mumbled, “Eat.”
Mackenzie swallowed down the vomit in the base of her throat.
Please come home, Mom. Please.
He father sat across from her and opened a bottle of Scotch. He gulped down half the bottle. She knew what was coming. So she stuffed her mouth with burned eggs and swallowed before she could taste them, as he watched her with glazed eyes.
Thirty-Four
Mackenzie looked out the window to the parking lot. A black SUV had just parked. Nick climbed out, dressed in a black suit and removing sunglasses against the setting sun. The light breeze ruffled his hair.
A small girl climbed out of the car. She reached just above his waistline. Her light-brown hair was pulled into pigtails. Holding Nick’s hand, she walked toward the diner.
The bell jingled as the door opened.
“Hey, Richard,” Nick waved.
“Nick! The usual?”
“Yeah. Thanks!”
“Aunty Mack!” Luna wrenched her hand away from Nick and raced to Mackenzie. She got out of the booth and spread her arms instinctively. Luna slammed into her, almost knocking the wind out of her lungs. But Mackenzie grinned and picked her up, spinning her around.
Luna squeaked in delight.
“You’re a little tornado, aren’t you?” She put her down and bent so their eyes were level.
“That’s what Daddy says. But I tell him life without me would be boring.”
“She has too much sass for a seven-year-old,” Nick muttered. “Luna, sit down.”
Even though Luna was given an order, she held her head high and strutted to sit inside the booth like she was royalty. Mackenzie still remembered the first time she had seen Luna. She had been a month old and wrapped in a red blanket. Her nose was so tiny that it looked like a dot on her face. Mackenzie had brushed her chubby cheek with her finger. But Luna had grabbed the finger in her small, tight fist, and started licking it.
In that moment, Mackenzie realized that Luna had grabbed onto a piece of her heart that hadn’t been blackened.
“Coconut flakes.”
“Coconut flakes?” Nick sat next to her and looked at them, puzzled.
“The other secret cookie ingredient,” Mackenzie gave Luna a high five. “Luna, I love your headband.”
“Thanks. I picked it out for myself.” Her chest swelled with pride.
“You’re going to grow up to be Blair Waldorf.”
“Who’s that?”
“You’ll find out. Just know that it’s a compliment,” she winked.
“Should I know who that is?” Nick leaned forward and whispered.
“A character in Gossip Girl.”
“She’s not going to watch Gossip Girl when she grows up.”
“Yeah? What’s she going to watch?”
“Like, National Geographic or some shit like that.” He bit his tongue and glanced at Luna.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s okay, Daddy. You say worse words. Mommy tells me to ignore you.”
Mackenzie spluttered out giggles with Luna.
“Laugh all you want. My point is that she isn’t watching that show.”
“What’s wrong with that show?”
“What the hell is Gossip Girl going to teach her, Mack?”
“Some excellent quotes and fashion sense.”
“She knows enough already. Trust me,” he sighed, exasperated.
Richard arrived, holding a brittle melamine tray with two milkshakes. “Here you go, guys. Enjoy.”
Nick pointed at Mackenzie’s untouched plate of eggs. “You not eating?”
“Lost my appetite.”
“This is nice.” Luna was barely tall enough to keep her elbows on the table. “You don’t visit me now. Daddy said you were busy with work.”
After a few seconds of bleary confusion, she relaxed. “Yeah, kid. I-I was busy. But I promise I’ll see you more.”
She caught Nick hiding his smile behind his straw.
“Daddy, can I get my iPad?” She put out her hand.
“Only twenty minutes, Luna.”
“However long it takes you and Aunty Mack to discuss your latest murder.”
Nick shot Mackenzie a pointed look as he pulled out the mini-tablet and turned it on for Luna. Once the tablet was in her arms and her headphones were on, Luna could ignore the apocalypse.
“I fear one day Shelly will take her away from me if she keeps talking like this. You said you found something?”
“Yes!” She pulled out her phone. “This was on her bedroom floor. Have you seen this?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think much of it.”
“Nick, the number ‘916’ turned up in Abby’s diary and on the inside of her locker.”
His eyebrows dipped as he stared at the picture. “That changes things.”
“But I don’t know what it means. It must mean something, right?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “The coincidence is too specific. To find these exact numbers in three different places? I’ll ask Jenna to check if they were involved in some society, or planned to join a sorority, something like that.”
“I wonder if this is the sensitive information Abby came across,” she said slowly.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that the way Abby had written these numbers. They were scribbled in her diary and behind a picture inside her locker. It seems like these numbers were important, but she was being secretive about them, considering where she wrote them. What if this is the clue or one of the clues she discovered? What if Abby knows what 916 means? What if this is why she was scared?”
Her thoughts raced through her brain like a train with failed brakes. She hoped she was being articulate enough for Nick; they had worked together long enough not to need many words.
“What does this symbol mean? It isn’t even complete. The top portion is torn off.”
“I sent the picture to Daniel. Maybe the FBI database can give some answers. I’ll ask Clint to run it too.”
“Good idea. This number, though… 916… it’s the area code for Sacramento. I can check if they have any connection there, but I doubt it.” He zoomed in on the picture and scrutinized it. “We need to get this to Anthony.”
“Why?”
“Notice the ring on it? It has a brown tinge to it.”
She narrowed her eyes and adjusted the angle of the phone and saw it. She had missed it before, but there was a clear ring of fading brown liquid. “It was used as a coaster. It’s a cocktail napkin.”
“Yup. So probably some bar or club.” He gave her the phone back.
“I’ll ask Clint to look for any establishment with a connection to these numbers.”
“Sorry Sully sprang this on you. I would have had time to come back to the station—the game ends at nine.”
“It’s fine. It’s good to see her.”
“This isn’t the first time Quinn Jones has given me the runaround. Chasing him during football season is like chasing a ghost. He’s busy at practice. He’s in a meeting with Coach Grayson right now. He’ll call you back later.”
Clint, can you look for any place that could be related to this paper napkin? I’ve attached a picture. Also check if there’s a connection to Eddy Rowinski.
“What do you think of Daniel?” Mackenzie said a moment later.
Nick frowned. “In what way?”
She licked her lips. “Generally.”
“He’s fine. Why?”
“Just wondering why someone with his background wanted to come to Lakemore of all the places.”
Nick nodded slowly. She knew his mind was racing. It was a thought that had been constantly knocking at her brain, like an uninvited guest.
Why was Agent St. Clair in Lakemore? The FBI could have had sent an agent from the Seattle office, someone familiar with Lakemore and Washington state. D
aniel had volunteered to come all the way from Chicago.
For all of Mackenzie’s belief in her hometown’s potential, she knew Lakemore was a town people escaped, not chased. What was Daniel chasing? He was an alien in Lakemore, unfamiliar with the town’s moods and workings, new to the rainy and gloomy state of Washington. That didn’t deter him from looking into evidence independently. It certainly didn’t stop him from acting vague and even lying to Mackenzie.
“Aunty Mack, what should I be for Halloween this year?” Luna’s innocent voice interrupted her thoughts.
“What do you want to be?”
“Everyone wants to be Elsa. She’s boring. I want to be different.”
“I don’t like Elsa.”
“Me neither.” Luna pursed her lips. “I like Merida.”
“Is it because of the hair?” she teased. “She reminds you of me?”
“Maybe unconsciousnessly.”
“That’s not quite it, Luna. You mean to say subconsciously,” Nick gently chided.
While Nick tried to teach Luna how to pronounce the word, Mackenzie’s phone vibrated with a message from Justin.
Remember that thing you asked me to look into a few weeks ago?
Her heart rose to her throat and then rolled down against her ribs. It bounced in her chest, leaving her dizzy. The back-and-forth between Nick and Luna funneled into oblivion.
She wished she felt numb. What she felt was an implosion in her chest, like a black hole was opening up and slowly tearing away pieces of her. She read on:
That woman’s name is Samantha Walker. She’s a waitress at Terroni.
What did Sterling call her? Samantha or Sam?
Thirty-Five
2012
Football season always sparked life in Lakemore. But this year the city pulsated with hope. Victory chants echoed over car honks as the Seattle Seahawks marched toward the playoffs, mascots played with kids, people dressed in jerseys, and walls were covered in Seahawks and Sharks graffiti. The high school team was also on a roll. Business boomed. Sponsors and recruiters came. They flooded the town the digital revolution had seemed to forget. But when it came to football, Lakemore had always mattered. Some of the best players in Seahawks history were from Lakemore. Football was the glaring reminder that the town had something to feel pride over, and it wasn’t footballing skill.
It was the spirit. It had been a surprise to Mackenzie. She had come back to right a wrong, and had found a town with a never-dying spirit. Crime was high. Streets weren’t safe. Ambition was lacking. But during football season, people woke up from their slumber. They remembered what it felt like to be children again—when anything was possible.
She watched the pack of people gathered around the television in the bar. Her hips twisted in her seat to the blaring beats of “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers. She bent down to look through her glass of brown liquid.
On the other side, she saw a smudgy outline of a handsome face with dark skin, light blue eyes, and curly black hair.
“You look blurry.”
“You look drunk.” Sterling cocked his head.
“I don’t get drunk, usually.”
“Any special occasion? I don’t think we’re winning this one,” he gestured at the flat screen television behind him. The Seahawks were playing the Giants. They didn’t have a chance this time.
“If I say I support the Giants, will they kill me?”
“Definitely.”
She cupped her face. “Will you save me?”
“Always.” He smiled. The dimple in his cheek made her heart skip.
“Do you always say the right things? Because that’s suspicious. I feel like you’re a serial killer or something.”
“You can order a background check on me.”
“I do that on the fourth date, not the second.”
“The second date involves drinking an entire bottle of Kraken?” he chuckled.
“It’s one of those days.”
“One of what days?”
“My mother’s birthday.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Oh? And you’re here with me?”
Gravity tugged on her body like a toddler pulling at a hem to get an adult’s attention. She grasped the edge of the table. “I thought I was falling.”
“You were about to tell me why you are spending your mom’s birthday with me. She doesn’t live here?”
How fast would he run if she told him the truth? “She’s dead.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s been a long time.” She gave him a tight smile. “What’s your sob story?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Then tell me a funny story.”
“Let me think.” He stroked his chin. “When I was in the second grade, I had a crush on a girl named Tammy. I was having my birthday party at McDonald’s, and I invited all the boys in class and Tammy. So she came to the party, but I didn’t say a word to her because she was a girl. Nobody else played with her. I remember her sitting in a corner alone and crying.”
“That is your definition of a funny story?”
“Yeah, I realized that as I was telling the story.”
“I hope you made it up to her.”
“I gave her a yellow rose on Valentine’s day. My mom forced me to.”
“She taught you to do the right thing.”
“I decided to never break a girl’s heart after that,” he said. “I’ll go up and order more beer. I don’t think the server is paying attention to us. Do you want anything?”
“I’ll have some wine. Any wine. Why don’t they have blue wine? Blue is a nice color. Or yellow. Though that might look like pee.”
Sterling raised his eyebrows. He bit his lower lip to control his laughter. “I’ll bring you some water. Then we can talk about having a wine for every color of the rainbow.”
“Rainbow wine collection! That’s a brilliant business idea!”
Thirty-Six
September 19, 2018
I decided to never break a girl’s heart after that. The sound of Sterling’s lie was pierced by Nick’s sharp honking.
“Move!” he growled.
Like a colony of ants racing toward their prey, people marched away from the field. Their enthusiasm spiked. Lakemore Sharks had scored a victory over the Frogs.
The crowd could swallow the car. Shoulders and arms rubbed against the doors. Fists banged on the hood. Lakemore Sharks flags waved in the air. Even the school’s marching band were part of the crowd.
“Still a fan?”
Nick snorted. “My cousin makes three grand every month selling T-shirts during the season. Can you believe that?”
Mackenzie stared as the sticks beat the drums, mouths wrapped around the trumpets and fingers tapped on the clarinets. She didn’t know what was harder to think about: the possibility of Abby being dead or her husband’s potential mistress. Closing her eyes, she took a quivering breath against the heaviness in her chest. Deadweight. Like she was trapped under a dead body.
“Earth to Mack.”
“I’m a bad person,” she murmured.
“What do you mean?”
“Sometimes, I feel worse about Sterling’s mistress than I do about Abby possibly being dead. Isn’t someone’s life more important than infidelity?”
His grip on the wheel tightened. “Don’t try to be a saint, Mack.”
Why was she speaking to him about this? But the internal protests were a faint whimper.
“Will these people kill me if I shout out my support for the Frogs?”
“They will.”
“Will you save me?”
“No way. Save yourself.”
She cracked a smile.
Nick parked the car in a tight spot. When he killed the engine, he looked over at her.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
The words felt like icicles cutting her flushed skin. She regretted letting her guard down. She climbed out and sl
ammed the door shut louder than intended.
Clouds blanketed the town, gathering the rain. But Mackenzie knew Lakemore was not stopping tonight. Tonight, it was going to glitter and glow.
“They should be in the locker room, according to Principal Burley,” Nick said. She appreciated the distance Nick maintained while they swam against the flow of the crowd, but caught his slightly raised hands, like a shield around her. Gritting her teeth, she pushed away from him, swatting people out of her way.
The crowd thinned when they reached the main building. The hallways were empty. She followed Nick, who knew the way to the locker room. She heard the roars and guffaws behind the closed doors. When Nick swung them open, the first thing she registered was—sweat.
The locker room was filled with glistening naked bodies moving and hooting. Mackenzie quickly averted her eyes.
“Victory! Victory! Victory!”
“Sharks attack! Sharks attack!”
“Get down! Get hard! Get mean!”
They weren’t men; they were animals. This wasn’t a locker room; it was a jungle. The celebration was primitive and carnal. Tall and broad-chested young men, flexing their muscles and crying out in deep voices—it was what happened when testosterone levels crossed a certain threshold.
She wrinkled her nose at the smell of sweat mixed with beer.
“Where’s Quinn?” Mackenzie asked a kid leaving the locker room.
“Don’t know.”
A tall, gray-haired man in a tracksuit spotted them as he handed a beer bottle to one of the boys. He was wiry but muscular; his posture told her that he was a former player. He stepped into the corridor.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m Detective Price, and this is Detective Blackwood.”
He shook their hands. She cringed inwardly at his clammy skin.
“David Falkner. The assistant coach.” His eyes glazed. Mackenzie realized instantly that he was drunk. It was the same lack of focus she used to see in her father’s eyes every night.
Our Daughter's Bones: An absolutely gripping crime fiction novel (Detective Mackenzie Price Book 1) Page 16