DevilMayRide

9
“It’s just a bad idea,” Sadie said.
“It’s the only idea,” Zack countered.
“I’m not staying with you, and that’s final.”
“You’d rather be dead?”
“You’re not exactly the only person I know with a sofa!” Sadie shot back.
“Well, I’ll let you kids work out the details,” Nick said. “I’m going up to Kenmore to watch ’em dig for a body. Given that you two are the ones who called it in, I could pull some strings to allow you to be on the sidelines. You game?”
“Yes,” Zack said.
“Whatever,” Sadie replied.
Nick took his own vehicle. Sadie and Zack drove in Zack’s Mustang. They didn’t talk and Sadie was relieved. She was petrified of Curly finding her and dissecting her with his knife. But she was also scared to death of sleeping in Zack’s apartment and making an already stressed-out situation more difficult.
They were almost in Kenmore when Sadie’s phone rang. It was Dawn, and Sadie was never more relieved to hear her sister’s voice.
“What are you doing?” Dawn asked.
“Oh, you know . . . same old, same old,” Sadie replied drily. “A body here, a ghost or two there.”
She saw Zack’s fingers tighten on the steering wheel. His own cell phone rang and he answered.
“If you have the time, I’d appreciate it if you’d come over and save me,” Dawn whispered. “Auntie Lynn’s been camped out at my kitchen table all morning. She’s driving me nuts!”
Sadie heard Zack talking into his own phone and relaying what he was up to. By the way he talked, Sadie figured he was talking to Jackie.
“I thought you liked Aunt Lynn,” Sadie said into her phone while she tried to listen to Zack’s conversation.
“We haven’t really seen the woman much since Brian died. Apparently in six short years a woman on her own can totally lose the ability to tell when people want her to stop talking,” Dawn hissed.
Sadie laughed.
“Okay, well, if Auntie Lynn’s at the kitchen table, where are you?”
“I’m in the bathroom. This baby is sitting on my bladder and I have to pee every fifteen minutes.”
Sadie heard the toilet flush.
“As much as I’d love to save you, I’m kinda in the middle of something right now.” Then Sadie thought about her own situation and how she needed saving herself. “But I could use a place to stay. Would you consider putting me and Hairy up for a couple days?” Sadie carefully ignored Zack’s big sigh.
“Any particular reason why you need a place to stay?”
“Um. I got a rat problem.” Big hairy tattooed rats.
“It’s good timing. John’s going to L.A. for a conference and he’ll be gone for a few days. It would be nice to have company. I’ll roll out the welcome mat if you get your ass over here before Aunt Lynn tells any more stories about how I used to run around without panties.”
“You were quite the exhibitionist.”
“I was three years old!” Dawn shrieked. Then off to the side she added, “I’m fine, Auntie Lynn. I saw a spider in the tub, that’s all. I’ll be right out.” To Sadie she hissed, “Hurry up. You owe me for doing such a half-assed job on arranging my baby shower.”
Dawn hung up before Sadie could argue. By then Zack was just pulling onto the street at the Kenmore house. No sooner were they climbing out of Zack’s Mustang and onto the sizzling hot pavement than they saw an Emerald Nine News van pull up behind them.
“Oh, great,” Zack growled as Scott Reed hopped out of the van followed by his cameraman. “The wolf has sniffed out a fresh kill.”
“Hey, Sweets,” Scott Reed called out.
The journalist sauntered over to them, wearing freshly ironed khakis and a royal blue shirt that made his eyes look almost impossibly blue. Zack cursed under his breath as Reed strolled over until he was scant inches from Sadie. She took a step back to protect her personal space.
“We’re busy,” Sadie said, feeling sweat already pooling beneath her breasts.
“Hey, I’m working too,” Scott said. “This isn’t all fun and games, but I gotta say it’s a nice surprise to see you so soon after our date.” He made a comical clucking noise and punctuated it with a wink.
“It wasn’t a date,” Sadie said curtly.
“Ignore him,” Zack said, putting a hand on Sadie’s elbow.
“Oh, it was a date, Sweets.” Scott leaned in close to Sadie but spoke loud enough for Zack to hear. “My favorite part was the good-night kiss.”
“You kissed him?” Zack demanded roughly, releasing Sadie’s arm. A look of hot fury fled across his face.
“He kissed me,” Sadie said. Not that it’s any of your goddamn business.
“Yes,” Scott admitted. “But you definitely kissed me back.”
“You kissed him back?!” Zack demanded.
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Sadie threw her hands up in exasperation. She noticed more investigators had arrived on scene and the Emerald Nine van was blocking access to parking. “Look, Reed, you’re going to have to move your vehicle before the cops get pissed and throw you out of here.”
“About that, my sources tell me you’ve encountered yet another Fierce Force crime scene. How about some details, Sweets, and I’ll not only move my vehicle—I’ll take you in the back and rock your world.”
“Argh!” Sadie shouted. She stormed off in the direction of Nick, who was talking with Detective Carr in the driveway of the house.
“Well, if it ain’t Typhoid Mary,” Carr quipped under his breath.
“I don’t kill people,” Sadie shot back.
“No, but every time I hear your name, it seems to be surrounded by death,” Carr countered.
Sadie couldn’t deny that.
“They found a woman’s body,” Nick said to her.
“Buried under the tree?” Sadie asked, looking from Detective Carr to Officer Nick.
The detective gave a sharp nod.
“But that’s not all. There was another body buried beside her.”
“Another body?”
“Yeah, but it’ll take a while to identify this one. It’s burned beyond recognition.”
“Oh my God,” Sadie gasped, rubbing the back of her neck.
“What I don’t get is why the hell Curly the Cutter would confess murder to you.”
“I guess because he was about to kill me too,” Sadie said, forcing herself to look him in the eye. “He was trying to scare me into telling him where I put the money I took from him.”
“Don’t get that either,” Carr said. “Why does he think you took money if he knows it’s in evidence?”
Sadie was getting hot under the collar and not just because the sun was blazing ninety degrees of concentrated heat on her head.
“Because he claims money went missing before the cops showed up and took the rest into evidence.” Sadie threw her hands up in the air. “Look, I’d like to know all the answers too. Hey, I’ve got an idea, why don’t you guys get in your little cars and go driving around to find the asshole so we can ask him?” Sadie screeched.
“Cool it,” Zack said, his gaze sliding over to Scott Reed, who was obviously pointing out their loud discussion to his cameraman.
Sadie hadn’t noticed Zack come up behind her, but she turned on him now.
“Don’t tell me to cool it!” She squared her shoulders and pinged her sharp gaze off each of the three men. “I was the one that was almost carved into itty-bitty pieces by some crazed lunatic just a couple hours ago! And let’s not forget that I just helped you get evidence to lock this guy away.”
“Not that we don’t all appreciate finding the body, but it’s a long shot from proving the guy’s guilty,” Carr pointed out.
“Oh, and the fact that Curly told me where the body was doesn’t help?” Sadie asked. “Did you expect me to get him to write it out in my blood for you too? He tried to kill me! Isn’t attempted murder still a crime?” She squeezed her eyes shut against a powerful headache rolling up her shoulders and into her neck. “You don’t need me here, do you?”
“No. I can get your statement later,” Carr said. To Zack he said, “You shouldn’t be on this scene anyway. Guess you can take her back to your place for safe-keeping.”
“Why the hell does everyone assume I’m staying with Zack?” Sadie asked. “I do know other people.”
Nobody said a word. Sadie whirled on her heel and walked away, realizing she had no vehicle to hop into. She saw a couple of uniformed officers shooing Scott Reed away from the street. Sadie elbowed her way past the officers and right up to Reed.
“Can you give me a ride to my sister’s house?” she demanded.
Scott Reed raised his eyebrows in surprise. “I’d rather bring you back to my place and—”
“Cut the crap. Can you or can you not drop me off at my sister’s place? She lives in Green Lake on Sixty-sixth Avenue.”
“Sure.” He nodded, his face serious. “I can do that.” The cameraman was not at all happy about riding in the back while Reed drove and Sadie rode shotgun.
Sadie was surprised Scott waited an entire ten minutes before his first question.
“How did the woman die?”
“What woman?” Sadie asked.
“The woman whose body they dug up today.”
“How did you find out it was a woman and that she was buried?” Sadie asked him.
“I didn’t know for sure, but thanks for confirming it.” He smiled. “My source only told me there was more action going on at that location and when I got there, Jacob”—Scott nodded to the cameraman in the back—“used his telephoto lens to get a look at the fact they were digging up something in the yard under a tree.”
“Don’t do that,” Sadie said, her voice tired.
“Do what?”
“Trick me into giving you answers that you’ll use to destroy my reputation.”
“Hey, Sweets, I’m not going to do that,” he said with a reproachful tone. “I can just say a source that wishes to remain anonymous told this reporter that information.”
“You don’t get it. I saw you guys filming while I had words with the cops. If you show that footage and then say a source told you, you and I both know people will think I was your source.”
“I don’t think Jack and Jill Q. Public are bright enough to put that together, darling.”
“You have a pretty low opinion of Seattleites, then,” Sadie said.
She blew out a breath and folded her arms over her chest and refused to say anything more except to give him directions to Dawn’s house in Green Lake. When he pulled his van in front of the split-level, Sadie thanked him politely for the ride and hopped out.
“Hello!” Sadie shouted as she used her key to let herself into Dawn’s house.
“We’re in here,” Dawn shouted back.
Sadie kicked off her shoes. She took a deep calming breath and pasted a big smile on her face before crossing the living room and entering into the kitchen at the back of the house.
“Sadie!” Auntie Lynn exclaimed. She jumped to her feet and tugged Sadie into a bear hug far greater than should’ve been possible for a four-foot-eleven white-haired lady in her seventies. The woman released her niece and smiled. “I can no longer say, ‘My, how you’ve grown,’ but I can sure say, ‘My, how lovely you look.’ You’re too skinny, but you’re beautiful!”
“Thanks,” Sadie said, noticing that Dawn, on the other hand, looked mighty relieved. “You look wonderful too, Auntie Lynn. You haven’t aged at all since we last saw you, has she, Dawn?”
“Nope,” Dawn said, chugging down a glass of water and looking like she wished it could be whiskey. She got to her feet with some effort, covered her mouth in a yawn. “I’m sorry, Auntie Lynn, but I’m just beat.” Dawn put a hand to her belly. “This little person seems to suck up all of my energy. Now that Sadie’s here, would you mind if I disappear for a short nap?”
“Not at all,” Auntie Lynn assured her. “It’ll give Sadie and I a chance to catch up on the last six years.”
Sadie was pretty sure the look she got from Dawn as she passed said nya nya nya instead of I’m tired.
“Sit, dear, sit,” Aunt Lynn encouraged. “I’ll pour you some of the wonderful coffee Dawn was kind enough to make me.”
“I’ll pour the coffee,” Sadie insisted.
Sadie brought the pot over and filled their cups. Then they sat down together and smiled at each other. Sadie wondered what on earth Dawn was complaining about. Aunt Lynn wasn’t so bad.
After they were halfway through their first cup of coffee, though, Auntie Lynn took a deep breath and began a long dissertation listing absolutely every item she planted in her large vegetable garden that was surely going to dry up to nothing in this heat wave.
“How was your drive up from Redmond, Oregon?” Sadie asked to get her off the topic of dehydrated radishes and desiccated strawberries.
“The drive was fine. Peggy acts as if I’m a total fool to hit the road by myself, but then your mother was always directionally challenged. She once got lost in a mall parking lot.” She rolled her eyes. “But the drive is really no big deal. I just took the Ninth Street north until I got to Highway 26, and then took the I-84 toward Portland, and by the time I was on the I-5, the traffic was busy but, you know, I’m not afraid to drive in traffic and—”
“So you’re still in the same house?” Sadie interrupted.
“Yes, I know Peggy suggested I move here after Glen died, but I’d been living on my own for ten years before that, so I was used to it.” The woman closed her eyes and sighed. “Those were the really hard years.”
“The ten years Uncle Glen was, um . . .” In the loony bin?
“When he was in the institution.” She sighed again and this time dabbed at her eyes a little. “Sometimes I wondered if I did the right thing letting the doctors put him in there. Seemed like once he got locked up, things only got a lot worse. He heard voices all the time.”
“Schizophrenia is a terrible disease, Aunt Lynn, but I’m sure Uncle Glen knew you loved him.” When he wasn’t hearing voices from outer space.
“Brian came to visit Glen at the end. It was so sweet of him and I hoped just for one day he could see the old Glen. He was a lot like Brian when he was younger, you know.”
“I forgot Brian used to drive up to visit you,” Sadie said thoughtfully.
“Well, truthfully he wasn’t there to see us nearly as much as he was there to climb Smith Rock.” She chuckled. “Why on earth rock climbers come from all over to climb that damn sheet of rock is beyond me.”
“I’m sure he enjoyed visiting you too.”
“Well, his timing was something else. You know Brian was actually there in the room with me when Glen passed on. Of course the stroke really killed him the week before, but he took his last breath with just Brian and myself standing there.”
Sadie shook her head. “I didn’t know that.”
And then Brian shot himself only a week later.
Aunt Lynn must’ve been thinking the same thing.
“I never thought your brother was unhappy in any way. He was so patient with Glen,” she added wistfully. Then, as if she was determined to keep the conversation more upbeat, she clapped her hands and announced, “I need more coffee. How about you?”
Sadie declined a second cup and when her aunt returned to the table, she was smiling brightly.
“By the way, I know all about you.” She leaned in and whispered, “I’ve seen you on the news.”
Oh, great. Just great. Even her aunt saw her flirting with Zack.
“Actually, we’re just coworkers.”
“Huh?” She looked puzzled. “I mean I know what you do for a living. Your mom kept telling me how you ran some kind of fancy cleaning company as if I’m an utter buffoon that can’t see for myself from the TV and newspapers that you clean crime scenes.”
“Oh. Well, I think Mom tells herself those things so she can sleep at night. I don’t think she can deal with the reality of my job. It makes her uncomfortable.”
“She doesn’t see that you started it all for her?” Auntie Lynn asked, shaking her head slowly from side to side so that her tight white curls shook. “Doesn’t she know that cleaning up after Brian killed himself made you want to do it to help other families too?”
Tears clogged Sadie’s throat with emotion and she didn’t answer. Picking up her coffee cup, she blinked them away while she sipped her drink.
“You’re like a modern-day heroine. That’s what you are.” Auntie Lynn reached and patted Sadie’s hand.
Sadie put down her coffee. “I’m not a hero. Most of the time, when I’m working, I’m just trying not to think about what I’m doing.”
“Exactly, and that’s why I was going to also say, don’t you think it’s time you went back to teaching second grade?”
Sadie stiffened. “What do you mean? Why would I go back to teaching?”
“I imagine your work is hard on you emotionally. Nobody could possibly do what you do . . . see the things that you do, day after day without becoming, well, hardened to the world, I guess.” She looked at her watch. “Oh, Lord, look at the time.” She guzzled the remains of her coffee. “Be sure to say good-bye to Dawn for me, but I’ve got to run off and visit your cousin Tina before she goes in to work the night shift at the hospital.” She leaned in to hug Sadie and whispered in her ear, “You don’t have to worry. Dawn knows nothing about the shower. It’s going to be a wonderful surprise.”
Aunt Lynn had been gone for less than a minute when Dawn poked her head into the kitchen.
“Is she gone?”
“Yes,” Sadie said drily. “Nice escape trick. I’ll have to remember to use napping as my own excuse next time.”
“It only works for pregnant women,” Dawn said, sitting down at the kitchen table across from her sister.
After a moment of quiet Sadie asked her, “Do you think I’ve become hardened because of what I do?”
Dawn was contemplative.
“I’d like to say no, but the truth is, you’ve changed since you’ve been doing this job,” she whispered. “It’s like you’re scarred on the inside.”
“Last month I cleaned the scene of a home invasion where a single mom and her baby were shot to death by a drugged-out lunatic.”
“I remember hearing about that one. That must’ve been awful.”
“It was. While I’m cleaning the living room, I can see and hear the ghost of the baby. He’s crying and crying, but I can’t help him. When I went to clean the corner of the room, I found the mom’s eyeball. I guess the ME missed it when he was picking up the rest of the body parts. The whole time I’m dealing with the mess, I’ve got the ghost baby bawling for his mom.” Sadie looked at her sister. “How can anyone experience that kind of thing and not be scarred?”