For You (The 'Burg Series) (28 page)

I knew that. Shit.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Lindy who heard it from Bobbie who heard it from Lisa who heard it from Ellie who got it straight from the horse’s mouth says you talked to Melanie this mornin’,” Jessie told me.

My mind flew through the strategies available to deal with this situation.

I settled on nonchalance. “Yeah, sure, she called this morning.”

“And?” Meems prompted.

“And nothing, Colt was gone. He had work,” I answered.

“And?” Jessie said this time.

“Nothin’,” I replied.

“Girlie, your whatever-he-is’s ex phones you, findin’ you at his
house
first thing in the
mornin’
, you call your girlfriends so we can peck it over and so, when other people call us about it, we don’t look like assholes because we’re surprised,” Jessie informed me.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” I informed her right back.

“It was, seein’ as she was callin’ Colt to ask him to dinner so she could see if he wanted to have another go,” Dee told me.

“Another go at what?” I asked then it hit me and I knew. I knew. Shit, I knew. I actually felt the blood draining out of my face before I whispered, “She said it wasn’t important.”

“She lied,” Meems said.

“She ain’t exactly gonna let you in on that,” Jessie noted.

“Oh crap,” I said and then I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the bar and my forehead in my hands.

I didn’t need this shit, not for a variety of reasons. The obvious one being I had enough shit to deal with. The one that somehow seemed more pressing was that I didn’t want Melanie to want Colt back because I didn’t want to find out that Colt wanted Melanie back.

“February,” Dee called.

“Give me a minute to think,” I said to the bar.

“Well, let us in on this thinkin’ ‘cause maybe we can help,” Jessie offered and I straightened.

“How’re you gonna do that?” I asked.

“Well, firstly, by telling you to pull your finger out about Colt and show him you’re ready to try again,” Meems stated.

“Actually, that’s most of how we were gonna help,” Dee put in.

“Great. That works. Thanks.” My tone was pure sarcasm.

“Has he kissed you again?” Dee asked and I pressed my lips together.

“He kissed her,” Meems muttered.

“They played pool too. Colt wiped the floor with her ass.”
 

This came from my mother who had planted herself by Dee and I hadn’t even noticed.

Mom had, that day, been given free rein to clean out Colt’s second bedroom. She called me at ten o’clock to inform me she’d talked Bud Anderson into delivering a brand new queen-sized mattress and box springs with a standard frame to Colt’s house by three o’clock. She bragged to me for ten minutes about the bargain she got. I didn’t dwell on why Mom was suddenly cleaning out and furnishing Colt’s second bedroom. As I mentioned before, I had enough to deal with.

“How did you know about the pool?” I asked my mother.

“Colt told Morrie, Morrie told Jack, Jack told me,” Mom answered.

Next time I ran away from home, I was going to a big city. The biggest. In China. Where not only were there billions of people, I didn’t speak their language and they had good food.

“Colt wiped the floor with your ass?” Jessie was astounded. “You rock at pool.”

“Maybe she was havin’ trouble concentrating,” Meems suggested.

“Colt leaning over a pool table, I’d have trouble concentrating,” Dee remarked and they all dissolved into loud, girlie cackles.

I took this moment to pry my eyes off them and look around the bar.

Yep, just as I suspected, everyone was watching us.

Time to put things straight.

I leaned in and said low, “This is the deal. I got some whack job murdering people because he thinks he’s doin’ me a favor. He stole my journals, which means he knows everything about me, all my private thoughts.” They gasped through this new news, I ignored it and carried on. “Colt is being cool, way cool, cooler than he needs to be. I’m grateful. I don’t know what that means and I don’t know if I’m ready to explore it. I’m just takin’ this one second at a time because that’s all the strength I got left in me with this shit which is relentless. I try to do more, I’ll unravel.”

They were all staring at me but I kept right on going.

“I need you all to help me keep it together. That means if there comes a time I want to share, I reserve the right to share even though I’m tellin’ you right now, back, the fuck, off.”

They all looked properly chastised, except Mom who looked weirdly proud. But I wasn’t done so I kept talking.

“As for Melanie, she’s a good woman. She doesn’t deserve the shock she had this morning and she doesn’t deserve us chewin’ her up just about now. It’ll play out as it plays out. This isn’t ‘may the best woman win’ because neither of us deserves that and Colt doesn’t either. These are lives were talkin’ about, the lives of decent people and that means Melanie too. Yeah?”

They all looked at each other then they nodded to me.

I looked at Jessie. “And you can tell Ellie, Lisa, Bobbie and Lindy the same thing. Serious shit’s at stake here and Colt needs to stay on target. He doesn’t need more crap to deal with.”

“All right, girlie,” Jessie whispered.

“We were only tryin’ to help,” Meems said.

“I know you were,” I told them, “and I appreciate that. But now you know how it is.”

Before anyone could say anything else, Morrie came up to the girl posse.

“Hate to break this up, girls, but Delilah and me got a dinner reservation,” Morrie announced.

Dee’s face grew slack as she turned to him and asked, “We do?”

“Costa’s, table for four and we better get our asses in gear. We’re late, they won’t save the table.”

“Costa’s,” Dee whispered, her face no longer slack but brilliant and alive and I felt her look in my gut like a happy tickle.

Morrie slung his arm around her shoulders and scooted her off her stool. “My baby’s favorite,” he said. “Let’s get the kids.”

They wandered to the office and I smiled at Mom. Mom smiled back.

“Costa’s. Yowza. Morrie’s pullin’ out the big guns,” Meems commented.

“Sometimes, it’s rare, but sometimes… men learn,” Mom’s voice was heavy with wisdom and experience as she slid off her own stool and made her way round to the back of the bar.

“I think I’ll take a drink now,” Jessie said to me.

“Not me, kids to feed,” Meems told us, “later lovelies.” She blew kisses and then, ten seconds later, blew out the door.

I made Jessie’s drink and was sitting it in front of her when my cell rang. I yanked it out and the display said “Colt calling.” I flipped it open and put it to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Feb, honey, I’ll be late but be there as soon as I can,” Colt said.

“Colt –”

“Soon as I can. Later.”

Then he hung up.

“Colt?” Jessie asked once I’d flipped my phone closed and slid it back in my jeans.

I sighed then said, “Yeah, he caught a bad guy and he wanted to celebrate with Reggie’s, beer and pool at his house.”

Jessie’s lips compressed then slid to the side and stayed there. I watched her as seconds passed and her lips stayed put.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” I asked.

“What?”

“Keepin’ your mouth shut for once.”

Jessie grinned.

“Bitch,” she whispered and didn’t mean it.

“You’re the bitch,” I whispered back and didn’t mean it.

Then I scanned the bar and saw I had customers who needed drinks.

* * * * *

At five to six, Colt met Sully on the lawn of Denny Lowe’s house.

“Well, good news is, we know who’s hacking people up in three different states. Bad news is, we got another body,” Sully told Colt and Colt closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he said, “Talk to me.”

“Marie Lowe, Denny’s wife. Found by the cleaner this afternoon. Cleaner’s Mexican and speaks about four words of English. Doesn’t help matters that she’s freaked.”

“How bad is it?”

“Seein’ as we reckon this was the first one and it started all this shit, he hadn’t decided on his MO. Just hacked her to shit with an axe.”

“Christ.”

“Not much left to her. She didn’t have some hair left and the wedding rings on her finger that you can see her wearin’ in pictures around her house, wouldn’t know it was her. He went at it. Kept hacking long after she was gone. Looks rage-driven.”

“We know why?”

“Nope. We’ll start diggin’.”

“We find out she’s the first, whatever caused him to do her could be what sent him on this path.”

Sully nodded.

“How long’s she been dead?” Colt asked.

“Looks like awhile,
smells
like awhile, don’t know for certain.”

“How often does the cleaner come?”

“Don’t know that either seein’ as I don’t speak Spanish and neither does anyone else.”

“You got an interpreter coming?”

“Yeah, ETA,” he looked at his watch, “maybe five, ten minutes.”

Colt looked away, tearing his fingers through his hair and swore, “Fucking hell.”
 

“Yeah, you’re sayin’ that now, wait until you get a look at the body.”

Colt turned back to Sully and gave the front door a lift of his chin. Sully nodded and led the way. They grabbed cotton covers for their boots and plastic gloves and pulled them on before they went in.

Colt saw immediately that the place screamed money. He knew Denny was a computer programmer, designed some software that hospitals all over the country used and he made good money but this place said more than that. Marie Lowe had good taste. It was sheer elegance.
 

Except, of course, the path of blood that stained the foyer and all the way up the wide, curling staircase that was accompanied by the sick smell of death.

Sully led Colt up the stairs while he talked. “Did her in the bedroom in bed, at least that fits the MO. Though he dragged her there, it started in the kitchen, blood all over the place.”

“No one reported her missing?”

“While investigating him we found out she doesn’t work. Don’t know if she missed a nail appointment,” Sully said. “She’s not a local, no family close we know of but haven’t looked into her much. Know she was forty years old. They been married a good long while, no kids. Maybe she met him at Northwestern.”

They hit the bedroom but Colt saw it before he got there because the blood was all over the walls.

Definitely rage-driven.

“Holy fuck,” he whispered when he saw what was left of Marie Lowe’s body.

The Mexican cleaner was going to have nightmares for years.

He turned to Sully. “Get the interpreter to call the cleaner’s family here. Talk to them about assistance. This is gonna fuck with her head for awhile.”

“Got it,” Sully replied and Colt walked fully into the room.

The boys were working the bed still taking photos. Andy Milligan, the coroner, already had the body bag spread out on the floor. How Andy was going to scoop up that mess and get it into a bag was beyond Colt but he was fucking glad that wasn’t his job.

Colt skirted the bed and saw a big, elaborately framed photograph on a bureau and he got close. Wedding picture. Denny and Marie, Marie smiling like it was the happiest day of her life. She looked young in the photo, maybe early twenties. She was pretty, blonde, dark brown eyes, tall, good figure that Colt could see even trussed up with all the material of her dress. Someone had spent some cake on the wedding if that dress and her flowers were anything to go by. Far’s Colt knew Denny didn’t come from money though his Dad didn’t do bad as he was the local pharmacist, which meant probably Marie’s family was loaded.