Cry Baby Hollow (19 page)

“I kinda don’t,” Joe told her sheepishly. “You do.”

“You got me a dog?”

“Vina said you always wanted one…”

“Yeah, when I was nine.”

Joe looked crestfallen.

“I don’t mean to say I don’t want one now, I just… I’ve always moved so much it was never an option,” she squatted down and ruffled Drake’s big ears. He lay down on his side, lifting his leg to allow her to scratch his belly. When she did, his back leg began to shake uncontrollably.

“There’s a girl at my lab whose family owns a breedin’ farm. Someone put down a deposit on this guy and changed their mind. By the time they realized he wasn’t gonna come get him, Drake was too old to sell to somebody else. Most folks want puppies. He’s real well trained. He’s house broken and he’s fixed because his ears are too far off standard to be used for show or stud and he’s got all his shots. They said they’d take him back if you didn’t want ‘em, but I may keep him myself. Hey Drake! Go get me a beer!”

Drake hopped up, gave Aubrey a quick nuzzle, then trotted into the house.

“He can’t get the fridge open ‘cause it has one of those side handles instead of a bar on the front, but you gotta love him for tryin’.”

Joe led her through the house and back to the kitchen. Drake was sitting alertly in front of the refrigerator. When they came in, he looked back at them and made a little whining noise. Joe opened the fridge and Drake stuck his head in, coming out with a long neck held carefully in his mouth. Joe shut the door and Drake held the beer out to him.

“He’ll run beside you for miles without getting’ tired,” Joe assured her. “I tested him myself. You don’t even need a leash, he just stays with you.”

Aubrey leaned over and kissed him.

“You like him?” Joe looked intensely relieved.

“He’s the nicest present I’ve ever gotten,” Aubrey told him truthfully.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Aubrey and Drake
left the next morning, Joe having dropped them off at the Mini along with Drake’s bed, chew toy, food, bowls, favorite stuffed animal, brush, leash, and sun glasses. Aubrey wasn’t sure about the sun glasses. They looked like old fashioned aviator goggles and seemed like perhaps the stupidest invention she’d ever seen, but as soon as she was on the highway Drake started pressing his face against the window and looking over at her pitifully. She turned off the AC and slid the passenger window down, and Drake stuck his en
tire upper body out into the wind. The goggles stayed put and protected his eyes, and Aubrey decided they must be okay because she’d never seen anything as happy as Drake was at that moment. His tail thumped against her chest, his tongue flapped beside his mouth like a wet scarf, and his fur danced like wheat in a storm.

They were about halfway home, at the turn off for the tourist nightmare that surrounded the entrance to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, when her phone rang. She hit the button and a voice came over the car speakers.

“Hello?”

“Hi Matt, what’s up?”

“Woof!” Drake brought his head in and looked around for the strange man.

Aubrey rolled up the window so she could hear and he looked at her mournfully.

“Where are you?” Matt asked.

“Still driving home,” she told him. “I just passed Sevierville.”

“Ah,” there was a long pause and she imagined Matt would have preferred she drive home drunk than spend the night with Joe. “Well, I thought I’d give you an update. I called the sheriff and requested their report this morning, but was told that their fax machine was broken and they couldn’t email it because they don’t have a scanner. They also said that they couldn’t spare anyone to deliver it, so they offered to mail it to me.”

“Great,” Aubrey fumed. “I don’t suppose you could tell them I’ll pick it up? I have a fax machine
and
a scanner.”

“Not necessary,” he assured her. “I figured they’d try to delay, so I had a state policeman who owes me a favor waiting on standby. He walked in while I was still on the phone with them and managed to get a copy without anyone even noticing. I guess their security isn’t very tight. Anyway, he faxed it to me and the sheriff is mailing me a copy as well. It’ll be interesting to see what differences there are in the two. The coroner’s office was a lot more helpful. They emailed the autopsy right over. That’s why I’m calling.”

“He didn’t die from a fall,” Aubrey told him.

“Actually, he might have. He had some nasty skull fractures, but the interesting thing is that at least some of his um… wounds happened before the fractures. A possible scenario is that he was attacked and fell while trying to get away. I won’t know what caused the wounds until our guys have gone over the autopsy report more thoroughly. Since the death was ruled accidental, they already released the body and it’s been cremated, of course. Nothing is ever easy. But we have a lot of photos to go by. I sent them up to our firearms/toolmark guys to see if they had any clue about what type of weapon we might be looking for and the guy called me back in less than a minute.”

“And?”

“And he told me they’d already processed that case and he’d fax me a copy of their report, but he wanted to know why I was interested. He wanted to know if we finally had a suspect.”

“They’d already seen the case?”

“Yeah, it took me a minute too. It wasn’t until he mentioned having examined the body personally that it hit me. Noah Mosley wasn’t the first.”

“Oh my god,” Aubrey breathed.

“Yeah. The last one was two years ago in Pisgah. I’ve got the file. It was a young woman, but it’s easy to see why the guy in the lab was confused. The mutilations are almost identical. She was found in a cave too.”

“You said the last… How many have there been?”

“There were two hikers found the same year as the girl, but they’d been out in the weather a long time. The mutilations were very similar but the weapon was different. It could be the same guy just using a different knife.”

“Where were they?”

“They were found just off the Appalachian Trail only a mile or so over the border in Virginia, but that was a dump site. We don’t know where they were killed.”

“So four?”

“Four that we know of,” he corrected.

They were both quiet for a moment.

“I’m officially looking into this now, so that’ll be your last free update. The FBI generally frowns on its agents keeping civilians up to speed on ongoing investigations. I’ll be up by you in the next day or so to start doing some interviews. It might be a good idea to act as shocked to see me as everyone else.”

“Matt who?”

“Exactly.”

They hung up and Aubrey slid the window back down for Drake. She wanted to call Joe and give him the news, but she wasn’t sure how Matt would feel about it and it would only make Joe more worried about her. She thought about the implications of a possible serial killer at large in the area and the fact that the sheriff might be covering up for him for the next forty minutes.

When she finally left the highway and was waiting at the light in front of the Waffle House to turn toward home, it occurred to her that the killer might well be the person she’d seen on Joe’s dock. In Spite of the fact that the murders had occurred in three separate states, they were all within a short drive of the cabin. She wondered who it could have been and then began swearing so vehemently that Drake pulled his head in the window and looked over at her in alarm.

“It’s nothing honey,” she soothed him. “Your new mom is just a complete idiot.”

Why had she and Joe gone for a walk? They were waiting for the pictures to download. In the chaos of finding the body she had completely forgotten that she might very well have video surveillance of the killer sitting on a hard drive in her closet.

When the light turned green she slammed down the accelerator and raced toward the cabin. She wove through town, whipped onto Dixie Highway and was just slowing down to make the turn across from Broad’s when she saw the red and blue flashers in her rearview mirror. She changed her signal from left to right and pulled into Broad’s gravel lot instead. A sheriff’s department patrol car pulled in behind her.

She dug into her glove compartment and pulled out her registration and insurance card and then got her wallet from her purse in the backseat and retrieved her license. She looked into the rear view mirror, but all she could see was the officer’s hat tilted down as he talked into his radio.

She pet Drake while she waited, promising him a big bowl of water and a treat as soon as she got him home. His ears perked up at the word treat and she remembered Joe had promised to give her a list he had of all the commands Drake knew. She’d call him as soon as she got home, she decided, and if she let something slip about what Matt had told her well... He hadn’t actually told her not to tell anyone.

The officer got out of the patrol car and Aubrey wasn’t terribly surprised to see the massive bulk of the sheriff himself mosey up to her window. She slid it down and was mildly gratified to see how he had to stoop to talk to her.

“License and registration, ma’am.”

She handed out her documents wordlessly and waited while he examined them.

“Did you know your insurance has expired?”

“It hasn’t,” she assured him. “I just get all my documents electronically and must have forgotten to print out the new card last time. I know it’s current because I changed it as soon as I moved. My rates went down,” she explained.

“So you’re a resident here?” He asked, as if he didn’t know perfectly well who she was.

“Yes,” she told him. “I live on Red Bank Road.”

“Your tag and license list a Reston, Virginia address,” he pointed out.

No shit.

“I haven’t updated them.”

“You know you’re required by Tennessee law to get a valid state license and registration within thirty days of becoming a resident. You been here longer than that?”

“Yes,” she told him, preferring a fine to dealing with the man any longer than necessary.

“Do you know why I pulled you over today?”

Because you’re a dick
, she thought.

“No.”

“You were speeding,” he informed her. “I clocked you doin’ fifty-five over the bridge. Do you know what the speed limit is there?”

“No.”

“It’s twenty-five.”

Aubrey had never seen anyone do twenty-five on the bridge. Even funeral processions took it at forty.

“That means you were goin’ double the limit. That’s reckless driving.” He didn’t even try to hide his glee.

“That’s ten points off your license, when you get one. You’re only allowed twelve in a one year period. I’d drive more carefully if I were you.”

“I’ll do that, sir,” she promised, trying to keep the anger out of her voice.

“Now if you’ll get out of the car, I’m afraid I’m going to have to impound it.”

“What?!?”

“I’ve got a report of a stolen vehicle matching the description of this one out of Chattanooga. I’m afraid I’ll need to impound it until your ownership can be verified.”

“I just showed you my registration,” she protested.

“Yes ma’am, unfortunately it’s not local and I’m not well versed enough in Virginia documents to tell if these are forged.”

Aubrey reached into her glove box and pulled out the little leather portfolio the dealership had given her when she bought the car. She flipped through and showed him her bill of sale, warranty information, and a dozen other pieces of paper with her name and the cars vin number on them.”

“Yes ma’am, that’s very compelling, but I’m still gonna need to impound the car until I can get a verification from the proper authorities.”

Aubrey ground her teeth, but she knew that if she argued he’d just come up with something else to ticket her on. She climbed out of the car and went around to let Drake out. He hopped down wagged his tail happily, sniffing around the gravel lot.

“You know you’re still in the city limits here. We have a leash law.”

Aubrey closed her eyes and counted to ten. She walked around to the hatch and popped it, reaching in for the leash.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you remove anything from the vehicle until we determine its ownership.”

Aubrey sighed. If she fought him on it would he tell her that Drake would have to stay with the car too? How long would the dog last in the August heat? Her purse… Her cell phone… How much of it would still be there when she got the car back? How much harassment was she going to endure before she put a stop to it?

“I want a complete inventory of the cars contents made by an independent source before you take possession,” she told him finally. “I’ll call my lawyer and I’m sure he’ll be able to meet us here very quickly. His office is right down town.”

The sheriff narrowed his eyes.

Drake seemed to sense the tension. He came over and sat at Aubrey’s side, letting out a low, dangerous, rumbling growl.

“Has he had his rabies shot?” The sheriff asked. “I don’t see a tag on him.”

“He has a sub-dermal tracking tag that has his immunization information and an id code identifying him as mine. I know Charlie has a reader if you need to confirm it. His tags and collar are in the trunk with his leash.”

“Don’t do much good if they aren’t on the dog.”

“He had a bath this morning before we left Knoxville. I was just letting him dry off before putting it back on.”

“You got a smart answer for everything, don’t ya?”

Aubrey ignored him and reached in the open passenger side window to grab her cell phone and call her lawyer. He specialized in family law, but she and Vina had paid him enough in the course of the guardian business that she knew he’d rush over as soon as she called.

“You’ll have to find another phone, ma’am,” the sheriff told her smugly. “I wouldn’t be a very good lawman if I let you run up someone else’s cell phone bill, now would I?”

Aubrey wondered if Broad’s was open this early. There weren’t any cars in the lot besides hers and the sheriff’s. She was on the verge of walking up and knocking when a gold Buick came skidding into the lot and slammed on its breaks, sending up a shower of gravel.

Vina hopped out and waved at Aubrey. Drake trotted over to her warily, hackles raised.

“She’s a friend, Drake.”

Vina looked down at the big dog, completely unperturbed in spite of the fact that he outweighed her by forty pounds. She held out her hand for a sniff and then ruffled his ears.

“Mo is on his way,” Vina told Aubrey without sparing the sheriff so much as a glance. Mo Campbell was their lawyer and a distant relation of Lettie’s. Aubrey said a silent thank you to the local rumor mill that had undoubtedly informed Vina of where she was and that she was in trouble. One of the dozen cars that had driven by since she’d been standing here with the sheriff must have been one of Vina’s informants.

“Is she under arrest?” Vina asked, finally looking at the sheriff.

“Not at the moment,” he informed her.

Vina got back in her Buick and cranked the engine. She reached over and opened the passenger door.

“Might as well wait in the cool,” she called to Aubrey. “Put the dog in the back.”

Aubrey let Drake into the car and got in herself, careful not to slam the door. Ice cold air blasted them from the vents and she sank down into the plush seat comfortably. She watched the clock tick off the minutes.

“I wonder what’s keeping him?” She wondered aloud after fifteen minutes had passed. His office was only a few minutes away, even if he went twenty-five over the bridge.

“I told him to take his time,” Vina told her with a smile. “His nephew is dating one of the secretaries at the sheriff’s office. He’ll find out what’s going on, get it cleared up, and come along then.”

Aubrey looked out at the sheriff, sweating in the heat, and smiled.

“Perfect.”