As I watched Beth come closer to me, I wondered why I wasn"t dating more. I wasn"t old by anyone"s standards. I"d just turned thirty-six and had a better build than most of my son"s friends. Still, I didn"t feel right dating. Karen was gone, and I didn"t love her anymore, but I"d never gotten a divorce. At least I hadn"t yet. It hadn"t seemed important to me. My job consumed most of my time, and Justin was too high a priority to make room for a woman. I wasn"t a monk either. I"d had s.e.x since Karen walked out on me, but I"d never had a relationship. Until Beth, I never thought that I wanted one. Something about that feisty little blonde made me want to force her to commit.
My mind raced back to a week earlier when I"d run into the city for a seminar. It was a two-day planned event that left me having to get a hotel room for the night. A few of us had decided to go to a bar for a drink. I ended up meeting a hot little number whose boyfriend was out of town for the weekend. I could still feel her lips around my c.o.c.k. She was one of those women with extra full lips. The kind that make you wonder what sort of work she had done to achieve such perfection.
She spent most of the night on her knees making remarks about how "gifted" I was. I grinned thinking about it. She"d been one of the rare few who begged me to come all over her face. I did, of course.
I tried to exchange names and numbers with her, but she"d been the one to insist on not doing it. Turns out her boyfriend was really a husband and she was just looking for a good time. I wasn"t into being a home wrecker, and it had been eating at me since I"d returned home. I should have been pleased to finally get some action. I"d been on a two-year dry spell. It was hard to find someone willing to have a one-night stand in North Maple Ridge. The town was small, and I didn"t need my character to come under a.s.sa.s.sination for banging the local women. Besides, I"d had my eye on one local since I"d arrived, and I wasn"t even sure she knew my first name.
Beth shot me an odd look. I forgot that I was still staring at her. I looked away quickly and tried to pretend that I hadn"t been ogling her. She stumbled right in front of me, and I reached my hands out to catch her. I felt her toned arms in my hands, she moved slightly, leaving my fingers resting on her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s. I drew a breath in and let my eyelids fall lazily closed. It was all I could do to keep from going instantly hard. The last thing I needed was to sprout a full erection while her body was pressed against mine. The woman already had a low enough opinion of me. I didn"t need to add to it any.
"d.a.m.n, why can"t these things happen near flat land?" she said under her breath, looking away from me and to the crime scene.
"Well, those of us with hearts wish they wouldn"t happen at all."
She looked up at me. I knew what she meant, yet I put her in the hot seat. I could tell I"d caught her off guard. d.a.m.n. I hadn"t wanted to make it any harder to be around her. It already seemed like the battle lines were drawn the moment we laid eyes on each other. It was her job to try to pry information out of me, and mine to keep everyone"s private matters just that, private.
Beth pulled her body away from my grip a little slower than I would have expected. The edge of my mouth curved upwards. I wasn"t grinning so much as I was sneering. I had to shake it off. I didn"t want to be that guy, the one that creeps women out.
I did my best to push the thoughts of f.u.c.king Beth out of my head and looked around the scene. We had the place lit pretty well, considering it was in the middle of nowhere and at night, but it wasn"t the same as daylight. I could clearly make out what was going on, and my men had things under control. Beth let out a small noise when she saw one of the blood soaked sheets laying over a piece of the body. I turned to make sure she was okay. I didn"t need anyone else throwing up all over my crime scene. The artificial light reflected off her eyes. I knew from sneaking peeks at her during a town meeting that her eyes were blue. I wondered if she ever bothered to notice mine. I had my doubts.
Beth seemed to live an active social life. She was definitely different from me in that respect. I"d seen her around town with her new boyfriend. He was one of those guys who like to look like they pumped gas for a living. Somehow, he"d managed to make the grunge look work for him. I"d never gotten onto that bandwagon. I liked people to know that I showered and cared what I looked like. This guy that Beth had been shacking up with was from the city and more than likely a musician of some kind. No, I didn"t measure up in that area. I couldn"t carry a tune to save my life. I could carry her if need be, though. My six-foot tall body was fit. Running every day saw to that, but I"d never seemed to be able to catch her eye. Sure, I managed to catch enough backlash from her to keep me up at night, but that was it.
"So what do we have?" she asked.
I looked over at the area marked off with yellow tape. What we had was a set of murders. Three to be exact. They were all related, without a doubt. We had some psycho running around, tearing the youth of our community to bits ... that"s what we had. I didn"t think it wise to put it in those terms, so I softened it up a bit.
"We have another one."
Her eyebrow rose. "Another one? You mean, like Becca and Christian?"
I nodded my head and thought of Becca Townsend and Christian Martin. They had been the first two murder victims. Three weeks ago, we"d found Becca"s body near the edge of the river. She had been in the same state as Jonathon-decapitated, disemboweled, and then mauled. It was still up in the air if she"d been raped. There wasn"t a lot of her left, and we"d had thunderstorms blow through the area the night she was killed.A week after that, Christian"s body was found further out in the woods. He"d just been accepted to State College with a full ride for football. He was the Martin"s only child, and the last I knew, they were planning on moving closer to the college. Guess that wouldn"t be necessary now. I hadn"t spoken with them since I delivered the news of their son"s death. I"m sure they blamed me for it happening. No, I hadn"t been the one to commit the act, but I had been the one who neglected to catch the murderer after Becca"s death.
Three gruesome murders in three short weeks had drawn the attention of the Feds. I"d received a call from them yesterday, letting me know that they"d be sending some men down. I welcomed the help, and was happy to see more resources coming in. I think my positive tone had caught them off-guard.
"Who was it?" Beth asked.
I frowned at her. She knew I couldn"t release that until the next of kin was notified. She looked over at Braun kneeling in the bushes throwing up.
"It"s bad then?" she asked. I looked down at her and wanted to shake her. h.e.l.l yeah, it was bad. One of the three worst crime scenes I"d ever seen. It wasn"t her fault. "Off the record," she said, looking worried.
Now that was one I hadn"t heard from her before. Beth liked to be the one who kept the town up to date. Promising to stay off the record was a big step for her.
"One of the Williams boys," I said.
She grabbed her mouth as a tiny gasp came out. I"d forgotten that her mother was a Williams. That made the boys her cousins. I reached out my hand to her. She moved past it and seized hold of my waist. Her hands slid up my back and she pulled on me tightly. I stood there, too shocked to hug her back, with my arms out in the air. I looked like I was being held up. I"d waited for ages to get her this close to me and then just stood there looking like Deputy Doolittle.
"Oh G.o.d, Adam. Aunt Maggie, does she know yet?"
I had to swallow. In all the years I"d known Beth, she"d only ever called me Chief Sisel. Hearing my name on her lips was magical, in lieu of the events surrounding the last few weeks.
"No. I"m on my way over to tell her and John now."
"I"m coming, too," she said as she ran around to the other side of my jeep. I didn"t have the heart to turn her away. They were her family, and if she was promising to keep this off the record, then it was fine by me. Besides, having her close wasn"t turning out to be altogether that bad.
Coming to NCP Aug 2004!
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