One Last Breath

by Sarah Sutton

  Tara knew she and Warren looked as if they didn’t belong on the beach. Both in long pants and boots, they clearly weren’t dressed for a day under the sun.

  The lifeguards looked a bit confused as they got closer. There were five of them, all exceptionally fit teenagers. Two girls and three boys.

  “Is one of you Brian?” Tara asked as soon as she was within earshot.

  The row of red shorts parted and looked toward a boy in the center. He stepped forward. He was shirtless, his skin bronzed. He had broad shoulders and a perfectly chiseled triangle-shaped upper body, but a sling hung across his chest, holding a casted arm. He confirmed that he was in fact Brian, but he looked startled by the question. Tara realized how odd this must be to him, being approached by intimidating strangers on a beach with no one around. It had probably never happened to him before.

  “Are you friends with Reese Tanner?” Tara questioned. She flashed her badge, dissolving any confusion.

  His face fell. His bronze skin became flushed in the cheeks. The other lifeguards looked at him and then turned away, moving farther from him. It was as if they knew he would need privacy, that they all sensed something horrible was about to be said.

  “Yes,” he confirmed. “Is she all right? I’ve been trying to get ahold of her…I,” he stopped himself. He could sense it; nothing was all right. “What happened?” he asked as he stood up straighter, like a trained dog waiting to be told who to attack.

  Tara knew instantly that he didn’t know, that she would ultimately have to break the news to him. It pained her. He looked sincere in his worry, and she had a feeling that he truly did care for Reese.

  Tara sighed. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” she started. His eyes began to glisten slightly, but then he breathed deeply, holding back the tears. “Her body was found this morning, on Dewey Beach.”

  He looked around him. He looked as if he might lose his balance, as if he were looking for something to steady himself. The other lifeguards were still listening. They were picking up branches, but at Tara’s words they all looked up and then toward each other. Terror flooded their eyes.

  “Oh my god,” said one, a petite young woman with a rock-solid build. She came scurrying over.

  The others followed until they stood just behind Brian. One of the guys, slightly older-looking, placed a hand on Brian’s shoulder.

  “You’re sure?” Brian finally uttered, his tanned face now looking slightly faded from the shock.

  Tara nodded. “I’m sorry.” She let it sink in for moment. They all looked around at each other in disbelief. “Were you two dating?” Tara finally asked.

  Brian stared off into the distance as he scrunched his face in confusion, still trying to make sense of it all. He then looked back toward Tara.

  “Yeah, kind of. I guess you can call it that.”

  “How do you mean?” she asked. It seemed like such a clear-cut question.

  “I definitely had feelings for her is what I’m saying,” he said. “But her parents would’ve never allowed her to date me, since I’m nineteen and she’s seventeen. We just spoke a lot, really, on the phone, through text. And then we’d meet on the beach sometimes at night, before she had to be home.”

  “When did you speak to her last?” Tara had remembered what he said in the beginning, that he had been trying to get in touch with her. “You said you’ve been trying to get a hold of her?”

  He nodded. “For about a week and a half, I’d say. She was supposed to meet me that night and never showed. I figured her parents were on to us or something.” He shrugged. “Thought maybe she was trying to cut it off.”

  “You didn’t stop by the coffee shop at all after?”

  He shook his head. “If her parents were on to us, I didn’t want to cause more trouble. I figured she’d reach out to me when she was ready. But I sent one of my buddies over, just to see if she’d say anything to him. You know, if it was over, I just wanted to know.” He sighed. “And then I found out she was missing. I just figured she ran away or something, to get away from her parents. I never would’ve thought—” He stopped abruptly, catching his breath. His friend patted his shoulder, rubbing it slightly.

  “Do you remember the exact day you were supposed to meet?” Tara asked.

  “It was—” He thought for a moment. “Last Tuesday,” he finally said, nodding with certainty.

  Tara and Warren shared a look. It was now Wednesday of the following week. The victim had gone missing eight days ago, which would mean he had planned to meet her on the night she went missing.

  “And you spoke to her that day?” Warren butted in.

  He nodded. “In the morning. Everything seemed good. She was ready to meet me. But then I got held up at home; my mom needed me to watch my brother for an hour. I tried to text her, since she would’ve already been on her way, but she never answered. And then when I finally was able to get to the beach, she wasn’t there.”

  Tara knew he would be a prime suspect, but if his story checked out, he would have an alibi. Her eyes moved to his arm. “What happened to your arm?”

  He looked down at it and sighed. “Fell off a roof. I do roofing for my uncle when I’m not lifeguarding. He owns a company. I broke my forearm…had to get surgery.”

  “When did that happen?”

  He thought for a moment. “It happened last Monday. I went into surgery on Tuesday.”

  If his story checked out, that would ultimately rule him out as a suspect. Tara and Warren both continued to ask him a series of questions—if she ever seemed afraid, if she ever mentioned anyone. But each answer led nowhere.

  “Where were you guys planning on meeting, exactly?”

  “On Dewey Beach,” he replied. “We meet by an entrance to the beach.”

  He explained the route. Reese would walk about a half mile down the road, and then she would take a turn by a gas station—Mobile, he said—and then walk straight to an entrance of the beach.

  Tara felt a rush of excitement. They could trace her steps. They could possibly find where she was abducted. The gas station. There would be cameras.

  Tara thanked him, and once she and Warren were far enough away, he turned toward her.

  “Let’s make sure his story checks out. And then you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?

  Tara nodded. “Cameras.”

  They now had a solid lead.

  Chapter Nine

  Tara and Warren pulled up to the gas station. It was the only one along the road Brian had said Reese walked to meet him. It had to be it; they were both sure of it. They had already gotten a hold of Brian’s medical records. He had in fact had surgery two days before Reese went missing. It was enough to rule him out. They both knew it would be too difficult to strangle an individual with an object with only one hand.

  They pulled into the lot. It was a large gas station, and cars waited in line for the pump.

  “There has to be cameras here,” Warren said as they walked toward the gas station store and scanned the area around them. “Ah-ha!” he blurted with satisfaction.

  Tara followed his gaze. Just under the awning, above the line of impatient cars, hung a white, round object with black eye-like center—a camera. Another one sat at the other corner. Both faced the road they had just driven on that Reese supposedly walked.

  “Let’s hope it tells us something,” Tara replied.

  Warren shrugged. “One can hope.”

  They both knew that the cameras would only show them a small fraction of the length in which the victim walked. She either reached the gas station, or she didn’t. And it was highly unlikely that she was abducted right in front of it. That would be too obvious. But it could help them narrow the area in which she was taken.

  Tara and Warren were soon inside. A younger man stood behind the counter, speaking with a customer as he rung him up. He had a piercing in his eyebrow and one in his lip. As he spoke, the metal piercings would move slightly, catching the light coming through the wind
ow next to him. He handed the customer a pack of cigarettes, and Tara and Warren stepped forward.

  It didn’t take long for Tara to explain who they were. At the show of her badge, the young man’s eyes flashed with fearful surprise. But at the mention of the cameras, he understood why they were there. After he called his boss to confirm that he could go ahead and show them, they were soon in the back room of the store, looking down at the computer screen.

  Warren sat in a chair, rewinding the footage until the day Reese went missing, and then fast-forwarded slowly. They looked for anyone unusual at first. They studied every individual that crossed the camera, but no one sparked their interest. They were all people doing ordinary things—getting gas, parents riding by on their bikes with their kids. Warren then fast-forwarded slowly into the night. The influx of cars into the gas station slowed, the people walking or riding bikes to and from the beach came to a halt. And then—

  “There!” Warren burst out, sending a jolt through the room and through Tara. He paused the video, rewinding slightly, and then paused it again. He moved closer to the screen, squinting.

  Tara hovered over Warren’s shoulder. She could see it too. Upon the street, coming in and out of shadows, was Reese Tanner, wearing her ripped blue jean shorts, her black top, and white Converse sneakers. She walked briskly and was soon out of view of the camera.

  Warren swiveled in the chair. “Well, we now know she made it past here.”

  Tara agreed. They did, and it narrowed the area down quite a bit. It was about a quarter mile, Tara estimated, from where they stood to the beach. Now they knew she went missing somewhere along that route. But where? Beyond the gas station was just a strip of homes. They had no other stores to enter to study the surveillance. And Tara thought it was unlikely they would see anything of substance if there were. She had a strange feeling that sat heavy in her gut that the killer perfectly planned this, and then she had a thought…

  “I think we should walk the rest of the way to the beach.”

  She knew it would be the only way to retrace Reese’s steps, and maybe she or the killer left something behind.

  ***

  Tara and Warren walked slowly along the road, scanning the ground. They searched for anything, any sign of Reese being abducted, but so far they had walked a quarter mile without anything to show for it.

  There was still an awkwardness between them. They had spoken only of the case, but Tara wanted to break the ice. After combing through some brush on the side of the road, she spoke.

  “So did you and Dr. Harris date or something?” She knew he would ask, if it were the other way around.

  Warren sighed and let out a slight chuckle, as if he knew the question was coming. It made Tara feel more at ease. “How’d you know?”

  “Intuition, I guess.”

  Warren nodded. “I wouldn’t call it dating; it was just a date.”

  They continued toward the beach, still inspecting the ground. A woman on a beachcomber bike came up behind them, and they stepped aside as she passed.

  “I guess it didn’t go well?” Tara asked over a gust of wind that tried to silence her.

  He shook his head. “She’s a nice person. I just can’t do it.”

  “Do what?”

  “Date.”

  Tara nodded with slight hesitation, as if she understood, even though she didn’t.

  Warren studied her, the sun hitting his eyes, causing him to squint in an almost skeptical way. “No one ever told you, did they?”

  “Told me what?”

  “About my wife.” He looked down at the ground as he winced. “And my daughter,” he added.

  Tara only knew that Warren once had a wife. She had figured he was just divorced. She had no clue about a daughter, and since she was still so new to the FBI, she was just beginning to get to know others in her department. If there was gossip, it was not something that had come up yet.

  “No,” she replied. She felt a sudden tug on her heart at the sight of him. He could barely look up. It was evident it was a painful topic for him for whatever reason. “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want.”

  He waved a hand as if telling her not to be silly. He straightened up, sucking in any emotion from his exterior. “No, it’s fine,” he started. “I forget how new you are sometimes.” His face twinged at his words, but then he sighed and continued. “I lost my wife and daughter five years ago. Car accident.” He continued to scan the ground, still focused on their mission, as if to distract himself from what he just revealed.

  No words could form on Tara’s lips. She had no idea, and yet she had spent so much time with him. Her heart ached for him. “I’m so sor—”

  “Don’t,” he cut her off. “I know you are.”

  Tara nodded, directing her attention back to the ground. She didn’t know what more to say.

  “She would’ve been eighteen last week, actually, my daughter,” he muttered under his breath with a shake of the head. “That’s always a hard one.”

  Tara understood far deeper than she’d like. Every holiday, every birthday, every new milestone. They all felt empty when she lost her mother. “I know,” she replied.

  Warren finally lifted his head, placing his hand on her back, rubbing it slightly like a father would.

  “I know you do,” he replied before pulling his hand back and abruptly shifting the moment. “And so that’s why I can’t date. Too early. I just still feel married,” he added to bring it to a slightly lighter subject. He then looked at her and smiled. “You’ll understand one day. When’s that guy going to pop the question anyway?” He chuckled slightly.

  Tara shrugged. “We shall see.” But she knew perfectly well that it might happen soon.

  “How’s his music going, by the way?”

  It was clear that Warren was trying to move their conversation to something lighter. Music was something Warren enjoyed as well. He was a Beatles fan and a guitar enthusiast. He wasn’t great at playing, he had admitted, but in his spare time—the little he had—he liked to collect them. Tara had learned that he owned a few Gibsons, a couple Ibanezes, and a Stratocaster that he had signed by Eric Clapton in the seventies. The fact that John was in a classic rock band was something they had bonded over during their car rides. Tara didn’t know too much about music, but she did appreciate it, and it was something they had somewhat in common that filled the silence.

  “It’s good. Keeping him busy,” she replied.

  But they both knew now wasn’t the time to discuss music. They continued their walk, tracing the steps of Reese Tanner. They still had yet to find anything, and Tara thought that odd. No sign of struggle, but they knew it was the path Reese had taken. Homes lined the streets, yet no one heard anything. When they finally reached the path to the beach, they stopped. A wave of disappointment hit them. They knew they were starting from ground zero again. Their lead had led them nowhere. They decided to continue their walk onto the beach, but after walking about a quarter mile, they stopped and turned to each other. They both knew they had reached a dead end.

  “It’s odd,” Tara admitted. “No sign of struggle, and no one heard anything.”

  Warren nodded. “It’s almost as if whoever took her, she went willingly.”

  Tara agreed. Could it be possible that the victim knew the killer? The thought danced in her head. She posed the theory to Warren.

  “Possibly,” he admitted, but they both knew they had already interviewed her family. They had already gone to her place of work. They already ruled out her secret boyfriend. So, even though they suspected she might have known the killer, they still did not have a suspect. Or did they rule out Brian too soon?

  “Could Brian have killed her with one hand?” Tara questioned. After all, Brian was clearly strong. He had an athletic build. He was tall. Could it be possible that even with one hand, he was still able to overpower the victim? Tara asked the question to Warren, who stood pondering a moment. He looked down at his watch.


  “Well, let’s go see what the medical examiner has to say.”

  He was right. It had now been a few hours since they brought the body in. Most likely they would have some more information at this point. Tara agreed, and they turned back toward the car, hoping they were finally walking in the direction of answers.

  Chapter Ten

  Tara and Warren pulled into the parking lot of the medical examiner’s office and were surprised to see a swarm of reporters waiting by the entrance. They all stared at the unmarked vehicle until it was out of view behind the building, and Tara knew they would now be fully prepared to pounce on them with questions.

  After looking briefly for an unlocked back entrance and failing to find one, Tara and Warren knew it was inevitable that they would have to part the sea of hungry reporters.

  As they came around the corner, the news crews were already staring in their direction, eagerly waiting. Tara accidentally locked eyes with a tall, handsome-looking local reporter with perfectly slicked-back brown hair, and within a split second he had a microphone in her face.

  “Do you have any suspects?”

  His question caused the others to flock around her like vultures, and she was soon unable to see beyond them.

  “What do you have to say to the people of Dewey Beach?” another female reporter shouted through the chaos.

  “It’s too early for comment,” Tara replied. “We’re following all leads.”

  She felt Warren’s hand upon her back as he led her forward, while asking the reporters to step aside, and they were soon safe within the building.

  “Thank you,” Tara said as the feeling of claustrophobia subsided. She knew this case would be big, but she somehow forgot just how overwhelming the media could be, and she was thankful to have Warren.

  They made their way to the medical examiner’s room and were soon met by Fredrick Burns. He was bald except for white hair that lined the sides of his head. They had already spoken to him on the way. He confirmed that he already examined the body, and he was now waiting for them to arrive.