The Ex Who Hid a Deadly Past

by Sally Berneathy

  “I see.” When he’d done the thing with his hair, he’d turned his head slightly, just enough for her to see the trace of red lipstick on his cheek.

  The blonde’s head was still lowered, her attention on something on her desk. Amanda couldn’t see her lips, but she’d bet her motorcycle that the woman was wearing red lipstick.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Amanda rode home through afternoon sunlight that held no warmth. The temperature had dropped at least ten degrees since she’d gone into the station. Maybe twenty.

  At least, it felt that way.

  The sun was dipping low on the horizon, shining directly into her eyes as she rode west.

  A pothole appeared on the pavement where none had been before. She swerved and barely avoided the gravel shoulder. If Charley had been with her, he could have warned her, but of course Charley was hiding in the void or wherever he disappeared to on the rare occasions when she needed him.

  She halted at a stop sign. A truck paused at the sign on the cross street. Amanda revved her engine and started across...at the same time the truck came straight at her. She twisted the throttle hard, shot forward, popped a wheelie and barely avoided a crash.

  She regained control of her bike. In the instant she’d glimpsed the driver, the instant she’d prepared to die, she’d seen him holding a cell phone to his head. For a moment she considered turning around, chasing him down, and...what? Go into a tirade that wouldn’t bother him? Threaten to sic her ghost on him?

  She drew in a deep breath. Get a grip.

  The personnel at the station had been celebrating Halloween, passing out candy to the kids, relaxing and enjoying themselves. Somebody...the blonde? Jerrilee?...had kissed Jake on the cheek.

  Big deal.

  Didn’t mean anything.

  He suddenly had to work late tonight.

  Big deal.

  Didn’t mean anything.

  The list of big deals that didn’t mean anything was growing.

  She arrived home, pulled into the parking lot and stopped.

  If Jake really had to work tonight, Ross might have to also. She could call Teresa. They could go out for margaritas.

  For one evening she wanted to stop thinking about murder and the possibility of going to prison and that smear of red lipstick on Jake’s cheek.

  She strode into her shop.

  Dawson stood beside the door, clad in his riding gear, helmet clutched in one hand.

  Amanda looked at the large clock on the opposite wall. “Oh, Dawson, I’m sorry. You’re going to be late to pick up Grant. I should have told you to lock up and leave on time even if I wasn’t back.”

  “It’s okay. I stayed because I need to ask you something.”

  “All right.”

  “What time are you and Jake going out tonight?”

  “We’re not.” Amanda tried to sound casual, as if she couldn’t care less about the change in plans. She had not been looking forward to continuing their conversation about Charley, so this was a good thing. “He has to work the streets. Halloween. Trick-or-treaters. Full moon.”

  “Okay.” Dawson rocked backward onto his heels. “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Probably. What do you need?”

  “I need you to come to my place in about an hour and watch Grant for the evening while I’m gone. Only a couple of hours. Maybe three.”

  “Oh. Well. Sure.” That would rule out the possibility of having margaritas with Teresa, but she wouldn’t wake up tomorrow with a hangover if she spent the evening with Dawson’s little brother.

  “Thanks.” Dawson started toward the door.

  He’d never before asked her to babysit Grant. Was something special happening tonight? “Got plans with Jerrilee?” she asked.

  His shoulders tensed. He didn’t turn back. “Yes.”

  “Is she the blonde in the reception area at the police station?”

  Dawson’s shoulders tightened even more. He hesitated then rushed through the door without answering.

  His failure to answer her question was an answer. The receptionist was Jerrilee. She was dating Dawson.

  Had she left the red lipstick print on Jake’s cheek?

  If Jerrilee was a decent, honest woman, that meant Jake was a cheater and a liar. If Jerrilee was a liar, Dawson was going to be hurt. This was a lose/lose situation.

  “So Dawson’s got a date, and you’re babysitting.” Charley was back.

  “How long have you been eavesdropping?”

  “Maybe we’ll get some trick-or-treaters at Dawson’s place. I can scare them.” He lifted his hands in an imitation of claws and snarled.

  “You don’t look scary. You look silly. Anyway, I’m the only one who can see you.”

  “So far,” he said. “You don’t know when that’s going to change.”

  Great. An evening of Charley trying and failing to scare little kids.

  ***

  The bright silvery moon floated high in the cloudless sky as Amanda rode through the gathering darkness to Dawson’s apartment.

  Could be a romantic night or could be a creepy night. She’d go with creepy.

  She pulled into the parking lot of the red brick apartment building where Dawson lived, yanked off her helmet and strode toward the sidewalk.

  “What’s your big hurry?” Charley asked.

  “We’re fifteen minutes late. You know how Dawson is about punctuality. We wouldn’t be late if you hadn’t wasted time trying to scare those trick-or-treaters who couldn’t see you.”

  “I didn’t know they couldn’t until I tried. Anyway, what’s the big deal? Dawson can wait a few more minutes to ruin his life with that bimbo.”

  Charley did not approve of Jerrilee. Charley was not a good judge of character. That could mean she was a decent person and...

  Charley’s approval or disapproval of a person meant nothing one way or the other.

  Amanda stomped up the three flights of stairs to Apartment 3D and lifted her hand to knock. The door opened.

  “I really appreciate your doing this. It’s important.” Dawson’s words and expression were tight.

  “Sure,” she said. “Glad to help.”

  “Sure,” Charley mimicked. “Glad to help him ruin his life.”

  Grant came up with a shy grin, hands in the pockets of his faded jeans. “Hey, Amanda.”

  He’d grown a lot in the five months she’d known him. He was going to be tall like his brother.

  And uncomfortable with expressions of affection, like his brother.

  “Hey, Grant.” She smiled but resisted the urge to hug him. “What have we got on the agenda for Halloween night?”

  “Some cool movies are on, classics like Saw and The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Ring.”

  “What about The Shining and The Exorcist and Frankenstein?” Amanda asked.

  Grant hesitated. He’d probably never heard of those great pictures. “We’ll take turns picking movies,” he promised.

  “I’ll be home soon,” Dawson said. “Don’t open the door to anybody, and do what Amanda tells you.” He started to leave then turned back.

  Charley laughed. “He just realizes what he said!”

  “Don’t worry,” Amanda said. “I won’t encourage him to do anything dangerous.”

  “I didn’t mean...”

  “Go. Have a good time. We’ll be fine.”

  “I’ll make popcorn.” Grant headed toward the kitchen.

  Dawson left, and Amanda locked both deadbolts behind him.

  She withdrew a bag of Halloween candy from her backpack and set it on the coffee table beside a laptop. Some people might have flowers or magazines on their coffee table, but it seemed natural Dawson would have a laptop on his. Probably had one in the bathroom too.

  She took out a two-liter bottle of Coke and went to the kitchen. “I brought the good stuff,” she said. “It’s even chilled.”

  Popping sounds came from the microwave.

  “What a great evening you
’re going to have,” Charley said. “Drinking Coke and eating popcorn and candy with a twelve-year old kid.”

  Grant reached into a cupboard, took down two glasses, added ice cubes, and looked up at Amanda. “Is he gone?” he whispered.

  “Kid’s as nuts as his brother,” Charley said.

  For an instant, she thought Grant was talking about Charley, asking if he was gone.

  Of course he didn’t mean Charley. He didn’t know about Charley.

  “Is who gone?” she asked.

  “My brother.”

  “Yes. Why?”

  He poured Coke into the glasses then took the puffy package of popcorn from the microwave and emptied it into a large metal bowl. “I’m worried about him.”

  That makes two of us. “Why?”

  He handed the bowl of popcorn to her. “Take this. I’ll get the glasses. My laptop’s in the living room.”

  Of course the laptop on the coffee table belonged to Grant. Dawson probably took his along on his date.

  She settled on the living room sofa beside Grant.

  He scooped up popcorn with one hand and opened the laptop with the other. “I forgot napkins,” he said. “This popcorn’s greasy. I don’t want to get it on my laptop.”

  Lots of things in common with his brother.

  “I’ll grab some.” Amanda went to the kitchen and returned with a roll of paper towels.

  Grant was studying a map on his computer screen...a map with a small dot moving along the streets. “That’s Dawson.” He pointed to the dot.

  “Yeah, sure, I see the resemblance,” Amanda said. “Especially around the eyes.”

  Grant looked confused for a moment then laughed. “I turned on the GPS tracker on his cell phone.”

  “Okay. Why?”

  “Have you met that woman he’s dating, Jerrilee?”

  “Not really. I may have seen her once, but we haven’t been introduced.” Amanda took a handful of popcorn.

  “She’s hot, but there’s something not right about her.”

  “Out of the mouths of babes,” Charley said.

  Amanda chewed her popcorn slowly, thinking about how she should respond. “Dawson mentioned that you don’t like her very much.”

  “Very much? I don’t like her at all. One minute she’ll have a mean look on her face like a witch who’s going to put a spell on somebody. Then Dawson comes up and she gets a phony mushy look on her face like some of those bad actresses in the low-budget movies. I don’t trust her.”

  Amanda knew she should say something positive, something that would put Grant at ease with his brother’s situation. It won’t last long. She can’t really cast an evil spell. They have cures for STDs.

  She couldn’t be phony with him.

  Before she could reply, he pointed to the screen. “Look at that. He’s heading back to the shop.”

  Amanda couldn’t tell anything about the display, but she took Grant’s word for it. “Maybe he forgot something.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Or maybe him and that skanky woman plan to do it on your desk in the office,” Charley said.

  Amanda lifted her glass of Coke and took a sip. “So I take it we are not going to watch scary movies tonight?”

  Grant looked at her apologetically. “Sorry. Maybe later. I figured if he picked her up and took her to a restaurant or a bar or even if he stayed at her place, it might be okay. But when he came home tonight, I could tell something was wrong. I mean, he’s been goofy ever since he met her, but it got really crazy tonight.”

  Amanda agreed but felt she had to try to reassure the boy. “Your brother’s in love for the first time. It’s...” Grant was probably too young to understand the hormone thing. She thought carefully about how to phrase her next words. “When a man becomes infatuated with a woman, he can become distracted, interested in nothing but that woman during the first part of their relationship.” She swallowed. Had that come out right?

  “I know all about sex and the drive to reproduce the species.”

  “Oh. Okay. Good.” Amanda grabbed more popcorn and shoved it into her mouth.

  Grant pointed to the laptop. “He’s at the shop now. He’s moving around.”

  “That sounds pretty normal.”

  Grant turned to face Amanda. “I know the sex thing explains some of the way he’s been acting. But not tonight. We were going to watch scary movies. When he picked me up at school, he said he was sorry, but he and Jerrilee were going to do something. I wasn’t upset. I mean, yeah, it’s Halloween, but one of my friends at school already had a Halloween party last Saturday night and I’m too old to go trick-or-treating. So it was no big deal. But I could tell he was really nervous about something. Then he said you were going to stay with me.”

  Perfectly normal the kid would rather be with his brother than her, but Amanda winced.

  “I don’t mean it that way,” Grant said hastily. “I like hanging out with you. We always have fun. But ever since we caught those crazy people last summer, Dawson’s let me have more freedom. When he goes out with Jerrilee, he lets me stay here by myself. After all, I am twelve years old now. In a few months, I’ll be a teenager.”

  “Ten months.”

  “I’m old for my age.”

  Amanda couldn’t argue with that. “It’s Halloween. A lot more bad things happen on Halloween. That’s why Jake has to work tonight, extra patrols.” She added the last as much for herself as for Grant.

  Charley gave a derisive snort.

  Grant pointed to the laptop. “Look. He’s still at the shop, and he’s not moving.”

  “He could be resting, looking at a bike, drinking water...”

  “That woman could have done something to him, and he needs help.”

  Or Charley could be right.

  “I’m sure he’s okay,” Amanda said.

  “We need to go over there,” Grant said. “I know my brother, and something is bad wrong tonight.”

  “I don’t think going over there would be a good idea.”

  Amanda’s cell rang. Saved by the ring-tone.

  “It’s Teresa,” she said to Grant. “I need to take this.” She needed to take it to get out of this conversation without saying they could be interrupting his brother and Jerrilee in a personal act. “Hi, Teresa! Ross bail on you tonight too?”

  “Okay if I come over tonight? Like, right now?”

  “Actually, I’m at Dawson’s place, hanging out with Grant.”

  “Oh? How long have you been there?”

  “Half an hour, I guess. Why? Are you all right?”

  “We have a situation.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I had a visitor. Lenny came charging in here, demanding I go with him to your place. He said he can’t make anybody there hear him so he needs me to tell them what he has to say...and most of what he said while he was here are words I don’t usually repeat.”

  “He couldn’t make anybody there hear him? I’m not there.” Amanda’s heart rate ramped up. “Dawson’s the only one there.”

  “I don’t know why he would be mad at Dawson, but he’s mad at somebody.”

  “I can be there in ten minutes.”

  “Make it fifteen,” Teresa said. “I’m farther away than you are, and I need to be with you to talk to Lenny.”

  Amanda disconnected the call.

  “I was right, wasn’t I?” Grant said. “Dawson’s in trouble.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. We need to go to the shop. Now. Get your helmet.” Amanda was not going to wait the extra five minutes for Teresa. If Dawson needed help, she would get there as fast as she could.

  Grant ran down the hall toward his room.

  “Are you nuts?” Charley shouted. “That lunatic Lenny is at your shop and you’re going there? You should be running the other way!”

  “Dawson’s there. We have to go.”

  “No, we don’t. I won’t and you shouldn’t.”

  “You will go because you’re stuc
k with me and I’m stuck with you!”

  “Are you talking to yourself?” Grant had returned to the room wearing a full-face helmet and a leather jacket.

  Amanda shot Charley a glare. “No. I’m not talking to myself. Not even close. I’ll explain later. Let’s go.”

  If she had to deal with Lenny’s spirit, it would be handy to have her own ghost translator and intermediary. However, it had become Charley’s habit to avoid tough situations. He was always around when she didn’t need or want him, and not around when she could use his help.

  Chapter Twenty

  The brilliant moon imparted a faint, eerie glow to the world through which Amanda rode with Grant on the back of her bike. Skeleton trees lifted bony arms touched with luminescence while their depths remained dark and hidden. Rooftops of houses shimmered faintly while doorways lurked threateningly in the shadows.

  She geared down and slowed as they approached the shop. The parking lot spread out before her...flat and empty. No motorcycle. No sign of Dawson.

  Teresa hadn’t arrived yet.

  Was Lenny there?

  If Dawson was gone, there was no reason for her to charge in and face Lenny alone. She pulled over and stopped on the side of the street, lifted the face plate of her helmet and turned to Grant. “He’s not here,” she whispered. Whispering so a ghost couldn’t hear her? Somehow it seemed the thing to do.

  Grant slid his cell from his pocket, tapped the screen a couple of times and studied it. He lifted his face plate. “My brother’s still here.” He looked around. “His cell phone’s here, but his bike’s not.” In the glow from his phone, Grant’s eyes appeared large and pale...scared.

  “He probably put it inside the shop. Halloween’s not a good night to leave a motorcycle outside.”

  Grant nodded. “I guess. Let’s go in and see.”

  That was the logical thing to do. This was her workplace, her home. There was nothing inherently spooky or creepy about either place. There was nothing unsettling about Dawson being inside the shop or about putting his bike in there. He did that on rainy days, cold days, days he wanted to work on his own bike.