Descend, page 18
Beth brings up the topic I’m trying to avoid. “Are you coming home with us?”
I feel Matt’s body tense. I open my eyes and look at Beth. “I have to discuss it with Chopper.”
Matt groans but doesn’t say anything. Beth plops her chin in her hands. “You better do it soon or we’re going to miss curfew.”
“Screw the curfew.”
She sticks out her tongue. “Says the one person who won’t get arrested for breaking it.”
“No one is going to get arrested for breaking curfew, Chief is just trying to scare people.”
Matt’s fingers graze along my shoulder. “I thought you two made up? You were friendly at the service earlier.”
I shrug. “Gary told me I had to be, so I apologized a couple of days ago and sent three dozen donuts to the station this morning.”
He chuckles. “That’s my diplomatic woman.”
Beth smiles. “Like I said, you can break the law and not get in trouble. I can’t. So let’s just leave. Why do you have to stay here anyway? I mean, I was against the curfew but there haven’t been any murders since it went into effect, right?”
“I highly doubt that’s because the psycho is scared of a curfew.”
She leans forward, whispering. “I heard that there were footprints in the mud by the road where Isabel’s body was found. And do you remember that one serial killer in California? The one they caught because he left footprints everywhere?” I shake my head and her eyes go wide. “They tracked down the type of shoe and even the color of it, just by the tread of the print that was left.” She sits up. “They can find out anything about anyone these days.”
“Except who’s murdering people in our town,” I scoff, looking up at Matt. “Is that true? Footprints were found near Isabel’s body?”
He glances at Beth and then back at me. “I haven’t heard that, but Beth talks to more people around here than I do.”
She remains silent, letting us decide for ourselves if we believe her or not. I rub my eyes. “All I know is no one has been arrested other than Gary, and not even the club has dug up anything helpful.”
“How are they compiling their leads?” Matt asks. “Are they even getting any?”
I think of Warren saying he learns a lot just by sitting around listening and my eyes snap to Chopper. He’s at a table a few feet away from us, head down as usual, staring into a mug of beer. I search for Warren and find him at the end of the bar where Chopper normally sits. His head isn’t down but he isn’t engaging with the people around him either. He’s listening. “Peas in a pod.”
“What?” Matt’s fingers slip over my jaw and turn me to face him, a smile drawing his lips high and wide. “That’s better. Now I can see your beautiful face.”
Beth’s nails tap over the table. “I heard the club has been roughing people up to make them talk. They’re riding the streets at night, interrogating every man they see.”
“So?” I shrug. “I’d rather them harass people than have bodies dropping all around us.”
Matt pulls me onto his lap, hand resting over the knee that’s exposed beneath my black pencil skirt. I thought the black and white print blouse with the flouncy tie at the neck was too much on its own and completely over the top when paired with the sleek skirt and red heels, but Beth insisted, and both the funeral outfits she brought were similar. Nothing else in my closet at home or at Gary’s was appropriate so I had no choice but to go with Beth’s picks.
“So,” Matt begins, “whether the club is getting information the wrong or right way, I think I can help them put it all in one place.” His fingers tighten as his eyes meet mine. “I have a vested interest in moving this whole murder thing along.”
“Oh yeah?” I grin. “What exactly can you do?”
“I’ll compile the information I’m given, feed the details into a spreadsheet built to link all the data together for us. It will find any connections we might have otherwise missed.”
“What kind of connections?” Beth asks.
He looks down at my shoes. I nearly wore my boots but one of the girls at the bar saw the heels and said Samantha would appreciate them. Matt’s fingers intentionally tickle my foot as he slips one of the shoes off. “Say they did find shoe prints at one of the scenes but the information hasn’t been made public yet. In the meantime, one of the Leidolf notes talking to a man wearing red shoes. A different member mentions talking to a man with muddy red shoes in his trunk. The program will link those bits of data so if the police ever say their suspect has red shoes, well, we’ve got a ready-made lead for them.” He slips the shoe back onto my foot with a wink. “It’ll be a lot of work, and the club will have to either write down absolutely everything they’ve seen and heard, or they’ll have to come to my office and let me record them so I can pull the bits of data out later.”
My gut pinches, mouth going dry. He sounds like a cop. A cop finding a clever way to get information from the club. “Can you build the program and teach me to use it?”
He nods. “I was hoping you’d be my sidekick. And if we do it right, we might even open our own detective agency. Give you something to do other than instigate riots.”
~45~
Chopper allowed me to go home with Matt and Beth. He followed, along with Warren. Beth asked me who was on the second bike, and I said I didn’t know in order to avoid the conflict of confessing that it was Warren under that helmet. Most of the guys don’t wear helmets with visors. Most of them don’t wear helmets at all. I’m glad Warren is choosing to cover every speck of his mug. I’m also glad that Beth doesn’t know Warren’s body as well as I do. He’d have to do a lot more than cover his face to hide who he is from me.
When Chopper parked behind us, Warren kept going. When I got inside the house, I went to my bedroom to change, peeking out the window that overlooks the backyard to see if Warren had parked on the street that the house behind mine fronts, slipping through their shrubbery in the darkness, giving himself a view of my house. A view of the window I’m in now, the one that belongs to the bedroom I’d meant to share with him.
“What are you looking at?” Matt whispers, coming up behind me and sliding his big arms around my waist.
“Nothing.” I let the curtain fall and spin in his arms. “It’s nice to be home.”
He presses his forehead to mine. “Since the club wants you under house arrest, I thought I’d buy a little kiddie pool and build you a beach out there.” I laugh and he kisses my neck. “I even found some inflatable palm trees on the internet.”
I drape my arms around his neck. “Inflatable palm trees are only one of the many reasons I love you.”
He smiles. “Then can I draw you a bath? And sit in it with you?”
My heart thunders. “This vacation is sounding better by the minute.”
~
I wake to the sound of Beth screaming. The bedroom door is open and Matt is running down the hall. I stumble out of bed, pulling sheets around me and trying to remember where exactly I am. “Matt!” I yell, mouth feeling like rot.
He steps into the hall, his boxers askew and his hair sticking up. But it’s the set of his jaw and the purplish tinge to his neck that has my attention. “Did you tell Warren he could come here?”
“No way.” Beth backs out of the kitchen, round eyes focused on what I can only assume is Warren. “She wouldn’t let you in this house.”
I press my back against the wall and slide onto the floor. “How much did I drink last night?”
Warren steps into the hall in front of Beth, sipping from a pink pig-nose cup that Mom bought me as a housewarming gift because she thought it would make a “nice start to a country theme”.
“Jeez, Tessa.” Warren frowns. “Didn’t we talk about your drinking?”
“Why are you talking to her about anything?” Matt yells.
Warren makes a show of taking another sip from his pig cup. “One of us has to be responsible for her.”
“Get off your high horse,” Matt snaps. “She deserved a drink after yesterday, and a whole bottle after what she’s been made to go through.” He points at the floor. “This is her home.” His finger presses into his chest. “I’m her home.”
Warren tips his cup at me. “Thanks for the coffee. We’re leaving in fifteen. I’ll be out front.”
“Where’s Chopper?” I ask.
He walks to the front door, leaving his cup on the card table, answering me with one word. One single word that makes all the difference. “Gone.”
That means I can’t stay here. I have to get dressed and go with him.
I reach for Matt. “Help me up.”
Beth hurries toward me, her nightshirt unbuttoned one button too far and mascara smeared under her eyes. “What is he doing here?”
Matt doesn’t touch me so I push myself sideways and crawl back into my room. “Gary’s orders. Yell at him if you don’t like it.”
Matt follows me into the room, putting away all the clothes I manage to yank from the hangers in my closet. “I don’t have a choice, Matt.” I crawl past him and into the bathroom. He follows, turning the bathtub water off directly after I turn it on. “Can I at least brush my teeth?”
His teeth grind. “You can tell your ex to get off your property.”
“I never told him he could be here to begin with. Gary did. So take your grievances up with the boss because if you haven’t been paying attention, I don’t get to have a say in what happens in my life!”
My voice rises with each word, Matt’s following suit. The shouting brings Warren back in the door. He shoulders past Matt and stares at me crumpled in a pile of sheets on the bathroom floor. He reaches past me and turns on the tub, looking back at Matt. “Spike the coffee I left on the table and bring the water pitcher from the refrigerator.” He focuses back on me, hand resting on my forehead. “The caffeine will help, but you’re going to have to drink a lot of water in between sips. Okay?”
“I don’t want to go to the bar today.”
He nods, eyes hardening. “I’ll call Chops, but he’s going to be pissed. If he’d known you were in this kind of shape…Tess, this isn’t you.”
Matt slams a glass of water onto the sink. “Get out. I can take care of my girlfriend.”
Warren straightens, stepping into Matt, the two men chest to chest. “I’m going to go make a call and when I get back, she better be off of this floor.”
~
The next time I wake up, I’m back in my own bed. Warren is leaning against the doorframe. “Where’s Matt?”
“Out.”
I sit up, head pounding. “What did you do to him?”
“He’s with Beth. After you fell asleep they went on some kind of store run.” He takes a step inside the room. “How are you feeling?”
“Better.”
“Liar.” He grins, looking around the room. “Nice place––”
“Yeah, and it could have been yours but you’re a loser, and I’m tired of talking to you.”
His jaw ticks. “I was saying that you have a nice place, but you’re not as secure here as you are at the bar.”
I wave my hands in the air, mocking fright. “Aside from the murderer, isn’t it club members you’re worried about?”
He nods. “A handful of them. We’re sure the rest have your back but if we calculated wrong, it’s a mistake none of us will be able to live with. So if you stay here and one of them knocks on your door, which are you going to let in?”
“Give me names of who you don’t trust and I’ll make sure they don’t get my engraved invitation.”
“No can do.” He takes out his phone, fingers moving over the buttons. “Chopper is busy—and irate, by the way—so if you stay here, I have to stay with you. Which means I’ll be inside because I’ve been outside all night. I’m tired, hungry, and I also need a shower and a change of clothes.”
I glance at the closet and swing my legs over the side of the bed. “Matt can lend you some clothes when he gets back. Until then, you’re welcome to what’s in the kitchen and you can nap in here. I’m getting up.”
“Like I want to sleep in the bed you share with him.”
“Then take Beth’s!” I scream. “That’s where you always wanted to be anyway.”
~46~
Lying on the lounger, soaking up the sun with my head in Matt’s lap and my toes in the sand he spread around the four-foot-wide kiddie pool, I pretend Warren isn’t here. That he didn’t get into my shower when Matt finally returned home. I haven’t spoken to Warren since I yelled at him, and all he said to Matt was, “You’re up, pig.”
Matt is irritated and I’ve told him I’m no less aggravated. I don’t understand a situation that gets Warren being a third to Gary. If Montrose wants to capture me for leverage, then being at the bar is only safe if Montrose doesn’t have enough support to overthrow Gary. Chopper and Gary wanting me locked up there leads me to believe Montrose is barking up a losing tree. Which means he isn’t why they’re spooked. He isn’t who they think is murdering women to get at Gary. What they think is that someone else is out there. Someone more menacing than Montrose could ever hope to be. And they’re certain I’m a target, if not the target. And all the other murders are meant to…torture me? Torture Gary?
“Are you going to be sick again?” Beth asks from her own lounger.
“No.” I stretch my hand across to her. She helped Matt set this whole beach thing up. They even attached a sprinkler to the water hose so a delicate mist falls over us as we bake in the sun. She locks her fingers through mine, and Matt rubs my shoulders, working the tension out. “I’m feeling much better.”
I focus on Matt’s touch and attempt to block the dark thoughts that are never far from me anymore. Doing so brings visions of Warren dancing through my head, an odd mix of emotions stirring in my gut. I despise him, that emotion sings loud and clear among all the others. But another equally vocal feeling is loss. My whole world broke when things ended between us, and I can’t ever get the years I gave him back. I can’t ever get rid of the resentment he implanted into me for Beth. She didn’t do anything wrong with him, nothing I fault her for anyway. But I still harbor ill feelings toward her. And I’m doing it while knowing that if I’m a target of this murderer, then so is she. Another bad thing that will happen to her because of me.
“Well, isn’t this a darling little beach setup.” Warren blots out my sun, stealing my breath when my eyes drop to the gray sweatpants hanging on his hips. He sees my gaze and smiles. “I always wondered what happened to these. Thanks for keeping my clothes all these years, babe.”
Matt sits up. “I swear to God I’m going to kill him.”
I press myself against him so he has to lie back down. “Just ignore him.”
Warren tugs up the bottom of his pants and steps into the kiddie pool. “What are we celebrating?”
None of us answer. Beth is a statue. I don’t even think she’s breathing. Warren stretches. “Zeno is coming to watch the house, so no one try to go anywhere while I catch a few hours of sleep. And Beth, I’m not drunk, and I’m a light sleeper, so stay out of my room.”
Matt’s chest thunders. “You don’t have a room here! You’re a guard dog, so go sleep on the porch.”
Warren strolls away with a laugh. He baits Matt and Matt bites every single time. The back door slides shut just as the roar of Zeno’s bike rolls over the house. I drop my head back onto Matt’s chest and close my eyes. “It won’t always be like this. Let’s just keep reminding ourselves of that.”
His hands rest on my hips. “You kept his clothes? Those oversized shirts in your closet, they’re all his?”
Beth sucks in a breath and blows it out. “Tessa wore that stuff more than he did and bought half of it, that’s why she kept it.”
Matt huffs. “He still rummaged through her closet, though. Did Gary give him permission to do that, too?”
“Can we just pretend he isn’t here?” I groan. “And celebrate the fact that I am here?”
He takes a calming breath. “Depends. Are you allowed to have a drink in celebration, or is that now forbidden, too?”
~
With a cooler full of beer, compliments of Beth, we turned up the music and I forgot about the rest of the world until I went into the house to grab towels. Tiptoeing into the back of the house, I peek into my room. Warren isn’t in the bed. My heart constricts, the pain of him choosing Beth’s bed over mine opening up the old wound as if the knife is freshly planted in my flesh. While I’ve been outside for the last three hours, he’s been spreading himself all over my sister’s sheets. I shouldn’t care, but I do.
My closet door is ajar. I move into the room to shut it, hoping he’s finished rummaging through my things. I trip over his booted feet. He’s on the floor, his back against the wall, head resting on his left arm while his right hand rests atop a pistol. Not the one from my nightstand, a newer model, like the one Chopper carries. “This looks safe.” I stoop down, sliding the metal from under his fingers. I do recall him being a light sleeper but he’s out cold, his mouth slightly open, his chest rising and falling softly.
Opening the chest at the end of my bed, I take out one of the blankets Arlene crocheted for me. I bought the cedar chest just to preserve these in because they’re the nicest things anyone has ever given me. She was a cook in my high school and I’d talk to her sometimes, mostly so Warren could steal snacks from the pantry, but I truly liked her stories. As a graduation gift, she made me these two blankets. Her hands were already tight with arthritis by then so her making these for me is all the more meaningful.
I pull the lightest of the two over Warren’s exhausted frame. It’s hot outside, but the air conditioner is doing its job inside. And everyone sleeps better when there’s something warm covering them.
I move back to the door. “Tessa.” He whispers my name.
I turn around, his eyes are still closed. Only his mouth moves. “The ceremony was nice. I didn’t get to tell you that yesterday, but you sent Samantha off right. She’s flying now.”
