Descend, page 5
“People do like to talk to her.” I hear the smile in Chopper’s voice.
Gary rubs a hand over my hair. “The town sweetheart, and a huge pain in my backside. Go tell Rick you’re coming with me. He was a little too happy earlier when I told him he was on Tessa duty for the rest of the day.”
~11~
Samantha parked at the Wiggly Pig but she wasn’t carved up in the lot. After Gary speaks to the manager, we’re allowed to view footage from the two outside cameras, one wide angle of the back of the building and one on the front where Samantha parked. Of her own accord, she gets out of her car and walks across the pavement to the sidewalk, following it back past the store and down the side of the building until she’s out of camera range. The rear camera has a view of the sidewalk but she never walks past. Either she darted across the street, or she got into a car that was parked between the view of the two cameras. After watching the footage from that point until the time when her body was found, without seeing a car emerge from the blind spot, we’re working under the assumption that Samantha darted across the street and either entered another building or walked down an alley.
Whatever Samantha was doing that morning, it looks to me like she was doing it with someone she knew. Like maybe she was meeting her drug dealer. Gary says no, and he’s normally good at sniffing out when she’s back on the pills, but his feelings for her could have blinded him. Chief agrees with me. I called him once we arrived back at the bar, dipping into my office to pick up my shoulder bag. I asked how strongly he still felt about the serial killer angle and he informed me it isn’t an angle, it’s a fact.
Meandering my way back out into the Grille, I watch the bustle from the archway. Almost everyone can be found in here from time to time, the tinted glass on the bay of windows across the front providing privacy even during the daylight hours when the booths lining that wall are filled with breakfast and lunch patrons. Tonight we’re particularly busy, and there’s no doubt it’s because everyone wants to gather at the watering hole to discuss Samantha.
The sheer number of people isn’t the only difference in the bar tonight. The Leidolf aren’t milling about like they usually do. They’re lined around the perimeter, observing the patrons in a way that has to make the bulk of them feel uncomfortable. Gary opened this place with a vision for it to be a legitimate business. A way for the club to make money while offsetting their image by making their clubhouse an open spectacle. His efforts have gone a long way because despite the occasional rowdy crowd, the Leidolf aren’t party animals. That I know of, none of them use drugs and they most certainly are never out of control. These men thrive on being in possession of their faculties.
I move to Chopper’s end of the bar and clap my hand over his shoulder. “Tell the guys to be nice to the patrons, then come drive me home. I need to check on Beth and she likes you better than the rest.”
I walk out the back door, turn down the alleyway toward the front of the building so Zeno isn’t staring directly at me, and lean on the building, closing my eyes. The bite of cold that lives somewhere between night and day nips at my nose and I draw the air deep into my lungs. I’m taking Chopper home with me because I’m scared. I’m going home because I’m worried about Beth. If Gary is right, someone could take a shot at Beth, which will hurt him by proxy. Even without me in the mix, a crime against her would bother him because at the end of the day she’s his cousin, too. And she’s also a member of a town under the protection of the Leidolf. That’s what these so-called gangsters are––protectors. Even of Beth.
Thing is, I don’t think Gary is right. I believe Chief. I believe the information he has about the five bodies proves a serial murderer is operating all around us. Once in our county and once in the other four counties surrounding us. But there’s another county that touches ours and right now, thinking about that northern border makes my stomach ache.
“Hey.” The soft whisper shakes loose my thoughts. I open my eyes and look at the man standing to my left, his body blocking the alleyway. Matt didn’t come in for his usual grease-filled plate of fried okra at lunch. Tina, who’d been busing tables during that time, muttered about his absence because I’m not the only one who thinks he’s a slice of pie with a whole scoop of vanilla ice cream melting overtop. He reminds me of one of those GI Joe dolls Beth used to play with. I never could figure out the appeal of playing with bits of plastic but Beth got one thing right, Ken had nothing on her beefy soldier dolls.
Matt’s also wholesome. Like bread. And everyone knows toast never hurt anyone. I pivot in his direction, keeping one shoulder pressed firmly against the wall. “So you’re not mute after all?”
He rubs the back of his neck. “You’re always busy so I just…don’t bother you.”
Pulling myself upright, I pace across the pavement to stand in front of him. “You do know it’s creepy to stare at women, right? Makes us super uncomfortable.”
His eyes dart away. “Yeah, I just…see you out here sometimes.” He nods to the window in what used to be Helen Kizer’s store back when she tried to make of go of selling candles. “I’m never sure if I should bother you.”
I smile at him and his lips twitch. He shoves his hands into his pockets. “I guess you’ve heard about that girl by now. The whole town’s talking about it. So tonight I…do you need a ride?”
I quirk a brow. “It’s a little late for an insurance salesman to be out, isn’t it?”
Sweat beads over his forehead. He pulls his hands back out of his pockets and wipes it away with one perfectly sculpted forearm. “I’m not a loser or anything, but I’m living here. In my office.” He nods to the window again. “Doesn’t seem sensible to rent a place when I’m already paying rent on a building that has a spare room. There’s a full bathroom, too. Just no kitchen.”
I already know his living situation. Everyone does. “Are you a killer and I’m in stranger danger right now?”
His eyebrows raise. “Just because a man stares, it doesn’t mean he’s dangerous. It means he looks out his window sometimes just to see if you’re out here, and tonight you were, looking like you were thinking really hard on something.” He mimics my posture from earlier, leaning his big shoulder on the wall. “I didn’t want you to sit out here alone. Then I wondered if your car broke down or something and decided to come see if you need a ride.”
Chopper’s bike starts up. He’s out front, and I know it’s his bike because I know the sound of all these bikes. “I have a ride.”
He pulls off the wall, glancing down the alleyway toward the front of the building. “Are these guys safe for you to be around?”
I move closer to him. His head swivels back my way, a smile spreading over his face at how close I am. I smile back. “So that’s why you avoided your lunch today, you’re scared of a few tattoos.”
His smile fades, chest puffing and ice-blue eyes standing their ground with mine. “I’m not scared of anyone. My stomach just needs a break from the crap you serve in that bar.”
I laugh. “Trust me, if I was the one serving it, the food would be much worse.”
“Oh, yeah?” He grins. “Then can I have your number? I’ll take you out for a nice dinner.”
I push by him, heading down the alley. “My number is public record around here. If you want a date, you can find it.”
“How do you know I don’t already have it and was just being polite?” he calls after me.
Chopper pulls to the mouth of the alley. I hop on his bike, plop the spare helmet on my head and blow Matt a kiss. He stuffs his hands into his pockets, a smile teasing the corner of his delectable mouth. I wrap my arms around Chopper’s waist. “I’m going to figure out what that man’s smile tastes like real soon.”
Chopper’s hand slides over mine, pressing my fingers tightly into him. “Make sure your head is right before you jump in with anyone.”
“Is that what you’re going to tell Alice when she comes begging for another round?” I tease.
He laughs. I don’t hear it but I feel it in the way the muscles contract on his abdomen. “It’s not what I’ll tell the woman who’s been bucking the law to defend me,” he declares, speeding us off into the darkness. I rest my head on his shoulder as he navigates the streets. He’s on the couch tonight, but I might sleep right there curled up next to him.
~12~
Beth is an early riser. I stagger out of my bedroom once I hear her come out of her room for the second time, the first being when she went to shower. She stops in the hall between our two rooms, hers being to the left of my door. “Which gang member was here last night?”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t start. Especially while Chopper is around.”
She sighs, fussing with my bedhead. “He was gone when I got out of the shower or else I wouldn’t have said that. He’s scary.”
“Not as scary as my morning hair.” I swat her fingers away from my tangled strands and drop a kiss on her cheek, trying not to think about Warren’s lips having been there. And I know they were. The man is nothing if not thorough. He would have had himself all over every inch of her.
She follows me into the kitchen, going to the coffee pot while I grab a packet of oatmeal from the box in the cupboard. “Any word on Sam’s killer? I’m sure Chief has gone through every member of Gary’s gang by now.”
“Even the old-timers don’t call them that anymore, Beth.”
She shrugs. “When Gary first brought them here, they did.”
I pop the bowl of oatmeal into the microwave. “Yeah, and now they sit in the bar-turned-café having their eggs cooked to order and their coffee refilled for free.” I face her. “Half the people in this town bring me their taxes every year and the other half don’t have taxable income—and not because the money they get is obtained legally. Which is why crime didn’t go up around here when the club moved in. If anything, it went down.”
“If you don’t call murder crime,” she mutters.
“Are you wanting me to throw hot oatmeal in your face?”
She grabs her coffee mug and begins to pour sugar into the empty container. “People are scared, Tessa. Since the club moved in, things around here have changed, and now we have murders? Some men are talking about banding together to run the Leidolf out of town and honestly, I can’t blame them. I don’t see why Gary and them stay in this one-traffic-light town anyway. It doesn’t make any sense.”
I listen to the sound of bikes outside. Chopper is leaving and Zeno is taking his place. And I know exactly why these men made Hinton their home. A town like this gets in your blood, making it thick as glue at the county line. You might leave, but you always come back. Everywhere else smothers you. Stiffens you up until you have to come back to the air and dirt of the river. Gary knows this better than any of us, and the rest of the guys have the river flowing through them now, too.
I take my hot bowl from the microwave and sit at the table. “The man wanting to run the Leidolf off better understand he isn’t intimidating. We don’t fear him and we certainly don’t revere him. So let your dad know the easily intimidated people that he gets to control for no other reason than he’s related to them, are a band of merry idiots he’s going to get hurt if he messes with the club.”
She pours her coffee and replaces the pot with a thud. “I didn’t say it was our dad. I said people, Tessa. And like it or not, he’s your dad, too.”
“He’s a worthless wanna-be and I’m neither a child nor weak-minded. I see him for what he is and it would serve you to do the same.”
My family is part of the blood is thicker than water clan, a bit that gets old fast when the men whose backs you’re supposed to have beat their wives and children because it makes them feel strong. Proof of how weak my dad is lies in the fact that Gary doesn’t have to tell him not to show up in the bar, Dad hasn’t ever attempted to step foot on Leidolf ground. Unlike the handful of times he’s presumed to show up on my doorstep. I came home once to find Beth had let him inside. That didn’t end well.
“You’re supposed to be staying with Arnold,” I tell her between mouthfuls of oatmeal.
She shrugs. “He snores. And how did you know I wasn’t there anyway?”
I scrape my spoon over the bottom of the bowl. “The guys are surveilling the house.”
Her body goes rigid and ever so slowly she turns to face me, eyes wide and lips pressed into a hard line. I slide my bowl away. I wish I hadn’t gotten so drunk that I spilled the beans about all the murders to her, but I did. And she needs to take the threat seriously. “I’m going to put an announcement in the paper. Women need to be vigilant, and all of us deserve to know we’re being hunted.”
Her lips part and she takes a breath, making me realize she’s been holding it. “I agree, and it’s why I don’t want to be followed around by a bunch of men who are probably hiding the culprit.”
“I didn’t say they were following you. They don’t like you, remember?” I make a face to match the one she’s giving me. “They’re watching my house. If you don’t like it, you can go stay with Arnold.”
She folds her arms. “Ever heard about the wolf in sheep’s clothing? Their club name literally means wolf.”
I get up from the table and plop my bowl into the sink. “They are descendants of the wolf. Protectors. And I better not hear a single whisper about you running around talking badly about my boys.” I face her. “There are lines you can’t cross, and accusing innocent men of being butchers is one of them. Don’t let me hear you say it again.”
“Fine.” She slams a lid on her to-go cup. “Chief is going to be hotter than a hornet when he hears about your little newspaper warning, but I’m glad you’re finally doing something other than tucking yourself into a safe place while the rest of us are out here being forced from our homes and fighting for our lives!”
“This isn’t your house, it’s mine. And you could have just as easily gone to the paper yourself instead of running down to the post office to spread gossip with Marla.”
She lifts her chin and sets her jaw. “I don’t get to run around like the rules don’t apply to me. If I go against the Chief, this town will flay me in the churchyard. But you they’ll immortalize as a saint. So go run and warn everyone, Tessa, because it isn’t gossip when it comes from you.” She heads toward the front door, a stomp in her step. “I’ll go tell Marla we’re not allowed to talk, that you’re the only one who can warn people.”
~13~
After my fight with Beth, I shower and have Zeno drive me to the newspaper office. Before we make it to the bar, Chief is lighting up my phone. Sally Jane called him right after she took the announcement I submitted. She’s always been a suck-up so I expected no less and therefore ignore Chief’s calls.
Shortly after I make it into my office, I’m summoned to the front where a purple-faced Chief is waiting. He says the newspaper announcement isn’t going to run and that’s okay with me. I have a new plan. “You and Mayor are welcome at the town hall we’re hosting in the bar tonight.”
He jabs a finger at me. “I told you my suspicions in confidence so you would look after yourself better. Not so you could go spreading rumors because if anyone around here is in danger, it’s you, running around here all hours of the day and night on the back of whatever your cousin dragged in last.”
I grin at the Leidolf, who are paying close attention to the Chief’s hostility yet giving the man some leniency. “Chopper’s a little shady but the rest don’t even try to feel me up when I’m kissing them goodnight. What kind of bad boys are those?”
Chief slams a hand on the bar. “Dang you, Tessa! This isn’t a joke. You’re going to get yourself or someone else hurt!”
Randy places a hand on Chief’s shoulder. A warning. I wave him away and round the bar, slipping my own hand onto Chief’s elbow and leading him out the front door. “Anyone ever told you not to walk into a viper den and rile them up?”
He shrugs me off his arm with a huff. “Anyone ever told you that I’ve got enough of a mess on my hands without you stirring things up with this town hall? You don’t even have the authority to call a town hall meeting!”
I look over his shoulder to where a couple of the kitchen staff are unloading supplies from a van. If anyone feels like ordering food tonight, we want to be prepared. “You see, that’s the thing. I didn’t ask for permission, and the townspeople already RSVPing to the social media event page I set up is all the authority I need.” I smile at him. “You’re more than welcome to come say your piece, and Mayor, too. We were kind of hoping both of you would be here to address the people who elected you.”
“I wasn’t elected, I was appointed. And what exactly do you want me to say?” he spits. “You want me to go into the gory details? You want me to unleash on all these people what my men are devastated from seeing?”
“I want your elected by the mayor self to explain to your people that we have a killer running loose around us. Let them know your theories, tell them to be vigilant, and give us any clues that might lead someone to help you catch this guy.”
His jaw works, eyes hard. “I wish I would have never told you about the others.”
“Well, you did,” I chide. “And it doesn’t seem fair that I should be the only woman warned to be extra vigilant, though I appreciate the soft spot you have for me.”
He bristles at my sarcasm. “I only warned you because of the company you keep.”
I lean toward him. “If you’re so scared of the Leidolf, then why do you come in here and give them your hard-earned upstanding citizen money?”
He turns on his heel and storms toward his car. “Chief!” I call after him. “If you think it’s one of them mutilating women, come to the meeting and stare each of them in the face. See who flinches first!”
Gary is waiting for me inside the door, arms folded over his barrel chest. I shrug. “Chief has to yell sometimes. It relieves his blood pressure.”
“Sounded to me like you were the one doing the yelling.”
