Better Than the Best

by Amabel Daniels

  Kelly wiped a tear from his cheek. “The hardest thing about my job was telling the family to move on, to accept it. But it’s true. Life’s too short otherwise.”

  He nodded.

  “What do you think Matt would want you to do? How do you think he’d want you spend the rest of your life?”

  ***

  Will studied the concern in her gaze.

  What would Matt want me to do?

  He opened his eyes wider.

  What should I do on the night-fallen beach, alone with an amazing, generous, beautiful woman, in front of the ugliest chunk of marble I’ve ever seen?

  He leaned over to kiss her, lowering her to the ground.

  “Mmm.” She smiled as they kissed. She pulled his shirt off, running her palms over his chest. “I like the way Matt thinks.”

  He smiled into her lips and slipped her shirt off, turning to nuzzle her neck.

  With a fast roll, she moved him to his back. “I like it on top.”

  He laughed lightly as he helped her slide his pants off. As suddenly as she had moved, he rolled her back under him on the sand. “I like it on top, too.”

  She threaded her fingers through his hair as he eased her shorts off. “And I like you on top.”

  “Hey!”

  “Shit.” Will sat up, blocking her face from the light that flashed after the yell from the road.

  “Eek!” Kelly smiled coyly as though she was mocking guilt.

  “Hey! I see you over there! What’s going on?” By the bounce of the flashlight in the sand, Eric had to be running.

  Will checked over his shoulder as he helped Kelly up. She was laughing too hard to cooperate. “Fuck.” Laughs slipped from his lips as he hurried. “Come on!”

  “Hey! Will Parker! I saw you! Stop. That’s public indecency, you good-for-nothing asshole! Who’s with you?”

  They took off on the beach, their clothes in their hands. Will scooped her up and carried her over his shoulder. She tucked her face into his neck, but couldn’t stop laughing as he ran for the other end of the beach.

  “Will!” Eric’s voice wasn’t far off.

  Will ran toward the kayak hut and sprinted down the dock.

  “The canoes.” Kelly pointed and he rushed for one. After he lowered her into it, she fixed the paddles on the sides as he freed the rope.

  Floating in the middle of the river, the riparian brush blocked them from Eric’s sight. Alone again, they resumed what had been interrupted. Afterward, Kelly lay next to him with her head on his chest, watching the stars. Will thought about what she had said.

  How would Matt want him to spend the rest of his life? Will didn’t know. But he was getting a sinking idea he knew who he wanted for the rest of his life and it scared the hell out of him.

  Chapter 35

  Burns was out of town the next day so it was Junior who called Kelly to collect the kayaks at the shallow end of the river behind his house. In the game of tag which was their job, he had driven the van of people back to the beach. Around noon she pulled off the side of the road to check the straps on the kayaks she had loaded. Tires crunched on the roadside berm as a car slowed to a stop.

  Ready for a dumbass tourist to cruise by and yell out something about her ass, she sighed and tightened the loose ratchet strap. No obscenities were shouted, no directions were sought, but the car hadn’t left. With the next kayak secured, she peeked through the cracks of the boats. Plastic domes covered the red and blue inactivated lights on top of the car.

  Eric must have seen them last night after all. She winced.

  “What do you want, Eric? I’m busy.” She concentrated on the next ratchet strap, giving Eric all the attention she felt he ever deserved. While she was a smartass, she had no problem respecting the law when they seemed competent.

  Eric, however, had failed to impress her.

  She headed around the kayaks, checking the trailer lights were blinking the four ways, and the license plate was affixed with its single screw. She wasn’t going to give Eric the satisfaction of actually finding something wrong.

  “Kelly?” Gannon stepped from his car, his hands in his pockets. A truck roared by on the road.

  He hadn’t changed a bit. Still reminded her of an Irish version of her Uncle Gavin, wearing a suit two sizes too big.

  “You lost?” She smiled.

  “What the hell are you doing? Boats? You’re renting boats?” He shook his head. “People need smartasses like you in hospitals, not getting sunburnt renting out boats.”

  She set her hands on her hips. “You came all the way out here to tell me that?”

  He sighed as he walked closer, shook his head. “Good to see you, too,” he said as he hugged her. “Actually, I came by to talk to you about something else.”

  Another truck roared by, the drone of sound complete with the driver honking the “Me man, me see young lady” honk.

  His grave expression worried her. “Here? Why don’t you meet me back at the hut in town? You can follow.”

  Despite her familiarity with Gannon, she didn’t like not knowing the reason for his visit. She had him follow her back to the kayak hut, stalling as her mind raced at what an FBI agent could possibly want with her.

  Norbert and Betsy were closed cases. He died of a medical accident—she, suicide.

  Fumbling through her purse as she drove, she checked her cell. Had something happened to Will? The boys? Dad? Why would a detective come down to tell her?

  Ten missed calls from Heather. Three from Dad. Many more from her brothers. Her phone had been in her purse all morning. She pulled up at the hut before she could call or listen to the voicemails.

  Gannon exited the car and walked towards the hut. With a swipe, she scanned her texts. They were long, too many to process. Only one caught her attention.

  Grant’s. “Don’t say anything,” she read.

  Don’t say anything about what? Her mind foggy with a charged mixture of curiosity and dread, she jumped out of the truck.

  “Let me unlock it and open the window,” she said.

  “You got someone to cover for you while we talk?” Gannon asked.

  “No. This will do. It hasn’t been busy today. What’s going on? You’re freaking me out.”

  “Kelly, APD located the body of your ex-husband three days ago. Decaying in his freezer.”

  She dropped her phone. “Excuse me?”

  She listened to the brief, official, and objective summary. In between words, she detected a hint of sincere sympathy, probably in case she was bereaved. Mostly, she sensed he was legitimately probing for answers to serious questions, and likely wondering at her potential involvement. They might be chummy, but she suspected underneath his laidback manner, he was all business.

  The shock settled in. It wasn’t expected news, but she remained logical. “Why did you drive all the way down here to tell me? Phone call couldn’t work?”

  What does he want from me?

  “When I saw your name, I thought it’d be a kind gesture to let you know personally.”

  “When you saw my name? What, in his obit?” she said. If there had been an obituary for John, she would have heard much sooner. Heather, Dad, her brothers. Any of them would have told her.

  “No. In his file.”

  “File? This is a federal case?”

  He sighed. “It wouldn’t have been except for a couple details.”

  He offered her a scanned copy of John’s scratchy penmanship. In a letter which had been addressed to her, he had penned some weighty news. He’d missed her. He’d made a mistake. He still loved her, needed her, wanted her back. She read it quickly and turned it over to see if there was more.

  “Where did this come from?”

  “It was found next to the body. There was an opened envelope addressed to you in Atlanta.”

  Kelly checked the scanned image of the envelope. “That’s Dad’s house. After the divorce, I stayed there until I decided to move.”

  Gannon
pocketed it. “It was never sent. Someone opened the envelope before it was dropped in the mail. Stamp’s on it, but it wasn’t mailed.”

  She shook her head, trying to make sense of it.

  “Were you aware he was trying to mend the marriage?” he asked.

  “Mend what marriage? We were already divorced. That means ‘it’s over’.”

  “He never mentioned regrets to you?”

  “No. The last time I spoke to him was when I signed the house over to him. Last I saw, he was with his lover. I caught him cheating on me with her.”

  “A Miss Jones?”

  Kelly shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. It was a while ago. I wasn’t dwelling on the little details. Kind of busy being depressed and humiliated and betrayed. Divorce sorts of fun.”

  “Did you ever meet her?”

  She looked around, aware of the stares which meant everyone was watching on the beach. “No. I saw her in the bed when they were screwing. First and last time I saw her or knew she existed.”

  “He never said anything about her?”

  “When I called him the day after I caught him cheating he said her name. Sasha. He’d met her at a strip club.”

  “Remember which club?”

  She shook her head.

  Gannon scribbled on a notepad. “No one has seen her since the time of his death. It seems she used an alias. We’ve checked with his family and they don’t recall her.”

  “John was an only child and seldom spoke to his family,” Kelly said. “Doesn’t surprise me.”

  “Friends and coworkers don’t remember much other than her name. We have no idea who she was. She’s gone.”

  “Gone as in dead? Was she killed with him?”

  “There was only one body in the condo. One blood type.”

  Kelly inhaled shakily as her calm shattered. “Who would have killed him? I mean, how? Was it some punk robbing him? What—”

  “No sign of robbery. It’s odd about the girlfriend, but we’ve hit a dead end with her. She might have been gone before he died. People vaguely remember her at the condo. What I have gathered is they fought a lot.”

  “No one from John’s office remembers her?”

  “Oh, they do. From what we’ve heard, she was a looker. But there’s no name to tie to her. We have a little video of her from the office lobby but nothing conclusive.”

  “What about his new job?”

  Gannon knit his brows. “How’d you know about that?”

  She explained the small world of Heather’s brother working at John’s company. When they remained quiet, she continued. “I remember thinking it odd.”

  “Why?”

  “Denver? John hated anything higher up than a ladder. If he was relocating, the Mile High City is the last place to come to mind.”

  “The email was sent roughly the same time of his death. Given the extent of decay of the corpse, it’s difficult to determine exactly what day he died.”

  Waves and beach-play noise deafened the roar in her head as she tried to think.

  “As you’ve relocated some time ago, APD didn’t include you for immediate consideration for questioning. They’ve already spoken to his family, his coworkers, his clients. Any enemies you think he might have had? Anything, anyone?”

  “No.”

  Forensically, it was a nasty but clean murder. Tidy by means of the lack of evidence, nasty in regards to the violence and blood. Suicide, they said, seemed out of the question. His neck had been snapped by force before he had been mauled with a crowbar. Consensus was it seemed like a personal killing, the body beaten both before and after death.

  “Normally in a case like this the spouse is one of the first to look to.”

  Business was business, but his question still stung. “Am I some kind of a suspect then?” She recalled Grant’s text. “And I’m not his spouse. I’m his ex-spouse.”

  How can anyone think I killed John?

  She hadn’t seen him since the day they met at Grant’s office to review the lease for their house they were renting out. At least more than four months ago. It felt like decades ago. John had been in his rented condo, decaying for months. She shuddered.

  “No. It seems you were absent prior to his death. Divorce seemed amicable in paper. Neither of you made out with any money.”

  “I kept what was mine and he kept what was his. We both wanted out of the marriage.”

  “He have any money problems? His records indicate he was conservative with his finances.”

  She coughed rudely. Conservative? He was a stickler. A tyrannical saver. It had always annoyed her. They had made good money, after all. “No. We were secure. We both had good jobs.”

  “Drugs? Mistresses?”

  She deadpanned at him. “Only the one I found him with as far as I know. I never saw any signs of drugs. I think I would have noticed something. He’d come home hung-over sometimes, but I didn’t see him much. Our schedules didn’t really line up.”

  No prints. No suspects. No answers. Decaying in—

  “Wait, you found him in the freezer?”

  “Yes. The landlord had been paid for three months upfront. He’d gone out of town for some time. When he returned, he followed up on complaints of a smell and found him in there.”

  “Decaying in the freezer? How? If he was on ice, he wouldn’t have been decaying.”

  “Power went out,” Gannon said. “Way back in the beginning of the year, we’d had a big storm. Blew the circuit and he began decaying.”

  “In the freezer? How can a body fit in…”

  He tilted his head to the side with a grimace. “The coroner believes he must have been put in the freezer close to his time of death. Before the limbs stiffened.”

  John. Dead.

  “I’m sorry, Kelly.”

  She nodded. “I am, too. I mean, it’s a gruesome way to go.”

  Gannon checked his phone, then stepped away for a moment. She tried to let the news settle in her mind.

  “You remember my last phone call?” he said as he returned.

  “Vaguely. You found the name of some friend in Betsy’s car.”

  “No. I said they had found a name. Not a friend. Denner.”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s what caught me, Kelly. APD contacted us because of the circumstances of the crime. They’re thinking it might be a serial job. Lack of evidence motivated them for help, too. Once I saw your name on the envelope, I was intrigued. But when I started to read through the reports, it’s the name that got me. They found a partial print on the freezer door.”

  “Whose was it? Denner’s?”

  He nodded. “It wasn’t a very good print, but that’s one of the hits.”

  Odd. No wonder it piqued Gannon’s interest. Kelly swallowed thickly. “Does this Denner person have a record?”

  “No. Only reason she showed up in the database was because she worked as a secretary in a prison in Salt Lake City.”

  “Maybe it’s a print from the last person in the condo.”

  “Since it’s a partial print, it’s difficult to consider with weight.” He scratched his chin. “But the name triggered me. We’re gonna stay in touch, alright? I might not have the time to drive out here again, but I’m keeping my eye out for you, kid. You impressed me back in the city. You cared more about doing the right thing for Norbert than technicalities of whose shift it was and who gave him the meds. Your kind of compassion is a rare breed. And I know if you think of anything, no matter how small it seems, you’ll call me. If I don’t answer, leave a message. Right?”

  “Of course.” She followed him to his car. “Hey, wait. Do you know when the funeral is?”

  Chapter 36

  Will spent the day running errands. It was busywork which really needed to be done, driving around outer towns picking up parts and items. While it would have made more sense to have One Arm Clay to play fetch, Will had wanted to be mobile and out of Churchston, in case Eric wanted to play funny business with him
for catching him on the beach with Kelly.

  Sometime in bootcamp, Will had learned to appreciate rules. Laws were laws for good reasons. Technically, it had been public indecency. But they were alone.

  When he came to the garage, Clay informed him an officer had talked to Kelly earlier. Checking across the street, he saw Junior manning the hut. He sped home, with his mind full of worry and his gut twisting with fear. First he looked at the townhouse. Then his stone house. He found her sitting on the beach staring at the waves.

  “Kelly.” He ran toward her, thankful she was in one piece. Her face didn’t show lines of pain or sadness, only that she was lost in thought. Her concentration could be just as worrisome. Eddie wagged as he came close and she stood to face him. “What happened?” He wrapped her in a hug and she sighed into him.

  Hand in hand, they walked back to his house as she told him the news from the detectives. She rambled on, explaining what Heather thought, what her brothers were asking, what she didn’t understand herself. Questions and worries spilled from her mouth.

  Caressing her knuckles, he led her inside and didn’t know where he stood.

  Is she missing this guy?

  Does she regret not being there with him?

  He was torn with unease. At the lack of tears, she didn’t seem sad. He hated how the jealousy in him had him relieved at that. But the hints of confusion and worry on her face, the idea of her big heart bleeding at the thought of someone in pain, those thoughts had him sympathizing with her.

  “I’m going back for the funeral.”

  Will nodded, letting the weight of her statement shift until it found its spot in his head.

  “I’ll drive up tomorrow and maybe stay a couple days.”

  “You want your old life back.”

  Kelly narrowed her eyes.

  He twitched his mouth. She was leaving. He had known the day would come. She’d want to go home. This had only been a temporary change of scenery.

  “You miss him.”

  “He’s dead, Will. There is nothing to want back. Dead or alive.”