Earth Angel (The Kamlyn Paige Novels) (4 page)

“No. The police don’t know what happened. They said
he drowned, but they couldn’t find the source.”

It became clear to me that the inconclusiveness of
her husband’s death was the only thing holding Mrs. Baker together. Her brain
was too busy fitting the pieces of the puzzle together to focus on the pain. I
felt for her and understood what she was going through. For her sake, I hoped
she never found out what had really killed her husband.

When Mrs. Baker excused herself to use the bathroom
upstairs, I walked into the living room to take a look around. Her home had a
definite outdoor theme to it. Wood covered every possible surface in sight and
above the old box television was a giant deer head glaring down at me. I pulled
a small electronic reader from my cropped leather jacket and turned it on.
While I waived the device around the room, the meter remained green, never
moving its needle over to the red and never making a sound. I heard Mrs. Baker
coming back down the stairs and quickly shoved the device back into my pocket.
I thanked her for talking with me and gave my regrets again before I left. I
started to have doubts as I climbed into the truck and headed back to the hotel.
I called Cara once I was in the room again.

“I’m not sure this is what we thought it was.”

I opened a bag of BBQ chips and popped them into my
mouth one right after another. I told her everything Mrs. Baker and I had
talked about, right down to the personal details of when her husband was alive
hoping there was some hidden evidence Cara would pick up on. That was her
specialty; piecing together the missing parts of the paranormal puzzle. When I
found out what had killed my son, Cara had wanted to help and be a part of the
hunt without actually having to leave her job. If it wasn’t for all her
research, I wouldn’t be able to do my job so quickly. I’d have to spend days in
the public library and online trying to find what took her hours to locate.

“Nothing you’ve told me hints to anything new,”
Cara said as if far off in her own world.

She had never been wrong so far and I knew she was
going through all the possibilities in her head over and over again.

“Tonight I’ll go down to the Roosevelt Lake and
check it out, see if I can find anything out of the ordinary,” I interjected,
trying to put her wondering at ease.

“Good idea. I’ll try to dig deeper here…contact the
Kettle Falls library or something.”

I could hear the soft tapping of fingers on the
keyboard as she already started to search away on her laptop. I decided to walk
around the town for a bit before dinner and talk to the locals; see if they
knew anything. But as nice as the people of this small town were, no one had
any helpful information. Everyone’s story matched Mrs. Baker’s and everyone was
equally confused. I continued to walk around while the constant drizzle
dampened my hair. I stopped into a small sporting goods store and bought a navy
blue windbreaker with an oversized hood. There was no way I could afford to get
sick now. I headed back out into the mist fully prepared.

Night came quickly and I decided to stop in the
local diner for some food. Everyone seemed to know each other and was welcoming
to people traveling through their town. A younger man about my age sat across
from me in my booth while I took a huge gulp of water.

“Hi, stranger. Passing through?” he asked upbeat.

He had on a heavyweight flannel shirt, steel-toed
work boots, and a dirty old camo ball cap. His face was tired from a full day
of work, but he managed to give me a wide grin as I introduced myself.

“Yea, just taking a road trip. My name’s Kamlyn.” I
responded, holding out my hand to shake his.

“My name’s John Weston. So…are you alone?” he
asked, looking around the diner for another stranger who could possibly be my
companion.

I wasn’t sure if he was trying to hit on me or if
he was just genuinely curious. It’d been so long since I’d had any real contact
with a new person.

“I’m alone, but getting ready to head out soon.”

I took a bite of my dinner, savoring its juicy
flavor. Rarely did I get the chance to sit down and eat food that wasn’t fresh
off the assembly line.

“Meatloaf’s good, huh?” he asked, smiling all the
while. “I live next door to this place and I eat here at least three nights a
week. Can’t get enough of it.”

I lowered my gaze to the table, feeling slightly
uncomfortable having a stranger watch me eat. I’d spent the last year in such
isolation that I wasn’t quite sure how to act when someone wanted to talk to
me. Thankfully, John was a very perceptive guy.

“Let me leave you to your meal, then.” He slid to
the edge of the booth. “It was nice to meet you, Kamlyn.”

“Good to meet you too, John,” I responded, still
adverting eye contact.

He stood up and walked back to his own table where
he ate alone as well. From what I could tell, he seemed perfectly happy with
his life even though he seemed to have no one to share it with. Who knows,
maybe he had a hot date later and I was feeling sorry for nothing. I paid my
tab and left the small diner without another thought of John. I walked back to
the motel to pick up my truck. The walk seemed further than I had remembered
now that the rain had picked up. Once I reached the parking lot, I got right
into my truck to start the hunt.

As I pulled up to the lakefront, I turned off my
lights. The silence after I killed the engine was deafening. I opened my door
and hopped out of the cab before walking around to the back. I pulled down the
tailgate and lifted up the false bed to reveal a shallow hidden compartment
underneath full of weaponry. I grabbed a 9mm, loaded it with a round of iron
bullets and put a red pouch full of salt in my coat pocket. Before I ventured
out, I grabbed my flashlight. As brave as I liked to think I was now, I wasn’t
about to wander the strange woods alone in the dark.

With the autumn leaves crunching under my feet, I
headed towards the lake bridges. Everything was quiet and peaceful. There was
nothing unusual from what I could see. I could hear the rain hitting the tops
of the trees, but the dense greenery prevented water from ever touching me. The
night was chilly and the moon shone off the water, giving the area a magical
glow. I thought about the people in town and how simple their lives seemed to
be. I wondered if I would ever be able to settle in one place again and live a
normal life. I knew that wouldn’t be possible till I found the one who killed
Danny, but I hoped once that was over I could. Maybe I would even be able to
find someone as perfect for me as Rob had once been. Or maybe I’d just get a
dog; a German Shepherd or a Basset Hound would do. The woods were quiet and
just when I thought it might be time to head back to the truck, I heard the
soft sound of a woman crying.

I walked over to the base of the bridge with my
hand at my hip, resting on my gun. Standing at the bank was a young woman. She
had long, flowing black hair and beautifully bronzed skin. The temperature was
only in the low fifties, but she had on nothing more than a simple brown
sleeveless dress. Her feet were bare and covered in dirt. I crept over to her
as she continued to stare into the lake, weeping.

“Hello?” I asked, not quite sure what the result of
speaking to her would be.

I had to be ready for anything, though, and I was.
She turned her head to face me, sending her long raven hair over one shoulder.
I stared into her tear filled eyes. Her irises were pitch- black but her pupils
shone an eerie glowing silver.

“My whole family…gone,” she whispered as a tear
streamed down her cheek.

When I lifted my flashlight to shine onto her face,
there was no one there. As many times as I’d had this happen to me, it always
caught me off guard. I took my hand off my gun and stared at the empty space in
front of me. With nothing more I could do, I turned around and went back to the
truck. I guess Cara had been right all along about it being a ghost. I knew she
would be thrilled to hear it.

Driving back to the motel, I saw a whirl of red and
blue lights parked in front of someone’s house. I leaned over and stashed my
gun under the passenger seat before pulling up to an old, run down house across
the street from the ambulance and police cars. A crowd had gathered there in
the driveway. My interest had been peaked. It was possible that whatever was
going on here had something to do with my case.

“What happened?” I asked from my truck to no one in
particular, when a familiar face stepped forward.

“Well, hello there,” John responded enthusiastically
for the situation at hand.

I gave a half smile and after a moment of awkward
silence his face fell with grief.

“Apparently, old man Jones drowned in his bathtub.”

He looked down at the ground and kicked around some
gravel while he spoke. I told him how sorry I was, assuming Mr. Jones was
someone everyone in the town knew well.

“He was like a father to me. My dad passed when I
was real young and, being my dad’s best friend, old man Jones helped raise me,”
John explained with a long face.

I looked into his eyes, which were full of pain,
and told him again how sorry I was for his loss. Death was the hardest part of
what I did. Everywhere I went, there it was. He thanked me, resting his hands
on the car door where I had the window rolled down. He stared into my eyes, biting
his bottom lip which was a nervous habit of mine as well. He opened his mouth to
say something but decided against it. I said my goodbyes and he nodded his
head, forcing a smile. I turned my truck around and continued back to the
hotel. That had been a close one. I’d seen the look he had in his eyes before
and I did not want to go down that road again. In my position, it would never
work.

The day had seemed longer than usual even though I
had gotten a late start. I changed into a t-shirt and a pair of Victoria Secret
sweat pants Cara had gotten me for my birthday. They were dark blue and said
‘Pink’ across the rear end in shiny metallic letters. It wasn’t something I
would have picked out for myself, but Cara had known that when she bought them.
She was such a bright and cheerful person and she hated that I always dressed
in monochromatic colors. It was just what I was comfortable in. I never liked
being the center of attention and certainly never bought clothing that
intentionally drew attention to my ass. With my job, sticking out was like
painting a big red target on my forehead. Sometimes, blending in meant the
difference between life and death.

I grabbed a towel and started drying my hair
lazily. Somehow the mist had made its way into my hood through all the chaos,
drenching my entire head. At that moment, I was glad I was low maintenance when
it came to my appearance. Blow drying it and then piling on products was the
last thing I wanted to do right then. I could barely keep my eyes open. I had
no clue what time it was, but I knew it was late. I decided to wait to call
Cara till morning. I crawled into the overly used motel bed and took two
sleeping pills for a peaceful, dreamless slumber.

*

When morning came, I stretched my arms high above
me and jumped out of bed. If I’d had a dream I couldn’t remember what it was,
thankfully. I threw on a pair of tattered jeans I’d had since my senior year of
high school, and a plain white t-shirt before venturing out to find food. Even
though there were closer places to eat, I decided to return to the diner I had
eaten at the night before. My stomach gave a deep growl as I pulled on my
jacket. It was the only decent meal around as far as I knew and for some reason
I hoped to see John again. I knew better than to get attached to anyone I met
on the road, but I couldn’t help thinking about him. Every time I’d seen him,
his face looked exhausted from a long day of manual labor, but underneath I saw
a handsome, simple guy. It was something that intrigued me.

Unfortunately and fortunately, John never came into
the diner. I ate a steaming plate of biscuits and gravy while thinking about
what he had said the night before. Normally, Mr. Jones’s incident would be an
open and close case of an old man having some sort of stroke and drowning in
his tub. A clear cut answer was never the real answer in my line of work,
though. There was definitely more to it. I shoved the last bite of biscuit into
my mouth before walking up to the counter to pay.

Back at the motel, I decided it was time to call
Cara. I felt guilty for having waited so long to tell her about what I’d seen
the night before. If there was one thing Cara loved most, it was to hear she
was right. I knew she would be able to help me figure out who the young woman
was.

“Well, you were right…it’s a haunting.”

“I knew it!” she yelled into the phone, causing my
reflexes to pull it away from my ear.

My hearing had been more sensitive than normal
after the shrill cries of my son’s murderer. Just another reminder of what I
lost and the pain it caused me.

“Why didn’t you call me last night to tell me
this?”

I could tell she had been up all night trying to
figure out how she could have been wrong. Her voice was elated, but knowing her
so well, I could hear an entire night’s worth of stress and no sleep underneath
the excitement. I told her about my encounter in the woods and the fact that we
had another victim. I thought I could actually hear the gears spinning in her
head as she considered all possible connections.

“Then we’re looking for a link between Mr. Baker,
Mr. Jones, and a young Native American woman who died. I’ll do some research
and get back to you.”

I knew her excitement wasn’t insensitivity to Mr.
Jones’ death, but more of a reaction to her love of research. She hung up
without waiting for a goodbye from me.

Very rarely did I have time to myself since I
started this new job. Not sure what to do with the time while I waited for Cara
to call back, I turned on the television and watched the latest Kate Hudson,
Matthew McConahey movie. I popped a bag of popcorn into the microwave and made
myself comfortable. It’d felt like forever since I was able to sit down and
watch a movie all the way through. At the end, when I was about to find out if
Kate and Matthew were truly meant to be together or not, my phone rang. I
turned off the television and walked over to the small desk where it sat. I
answered only to hear Cara jump in without saying so much as hello.