AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, they are, although right now they’re staying in New York so my dad can rest. I guess he’s had some trouble with stomach ulcers.”
“We’d love to meet them the next time they’re in town,” Alice says.
“They don’t venture down this way very often, but I’m sure they’d be happy to meet you, too, if they do,” I respond, knowing the chances of them coming down here is slim to none. Cooper's phone starts ringing from his pocket, and we all glance at him.
He looks at the screen and frowns, “Sorry, this is the station.” He gets up from the table and walks into the living room and around the corner. Chatter around the table continues as if this is a normal occurrence, but my mind is on Cooper. The station calling on a Sunday night is weird, and a little bubble of anxiety sits in my gut.
I watch as Cooper comes back around the corner, and I immediately know something is very wrong. The stricken look on his face and the tightness in his eyes tells me everything I need to know.
Someone else has been murdered.
32
COOPER
Flashing red and blue lights brighten the darkened sky, floodlights are set up like spotlights, and organized chaos spreads through the landfill. Officers move through the scene, taping off the area as the crime scene unit marks and collects anything they can find that could be evidence.
I stand here, looking at a second crime scene, and I can’t quite wrap my head around how this happened in the quiet little town I grew up in. Shit like this isn’t supposed to happen here, and yet, another girl has been murdered.
Chris, the medical examiner, walks up next to me, and we both stand in silence for a minute, taking in the activity around us.
“What do you have?”
“Not much until I get her back to the morgue. Decomp suggests she was killed sometime Saturday night, but because of where she was dumped I won’t have a specific time for a bit. Same cause of death as the last girl except this one was quicker. Our killer chose major arteries and made deeper cuts this time, so our vic died faster than the last one.”
I sigh, “I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing at this point.”
“Me either. I’ll send you my report once I get her on my table,” Chris says as he walks with the paramedics who will take the body back to the morgue.
Soon after Chris walks away, Liam comes up to me to give me an update on what the team has found so far.
“We’re bagging up pretty much anything that was touched by or around the body right now. We don’t have an ID yet and don’t think we’re going to find it either. We found her naked and sliced, just like the last girl.”
“So, no place to hide any identification.”
“No, and we haven’t found any personal belongings either.”
“Highly unlikely at this point. Do we know if she was killed here or dumped?”
“She was definitely killed here. There’s so much blood, Chief. I’ve never seen anything like it.” I look into Liam’s face, and there’s a hauntedness in his eyes that makes me rage. He’s only in his twenties, he shouldn’t have had to see something so horrific.
“Focus your energy on finding any evidence you can. One little stone could lead to the whole mess toppling over, and then we’ll get our guy. It’s not going to erase the images in your head, but it’ll help take the burden from your shoulders.”
Liam looks at me and nods, walking back into the fray to help. I wish my words could do more but there isn’t much that will make this situation any better. Getting justice may feel good temporarily but it won’t take away the heartache. The only thing that’s been able to help me is Quinn, which makes me feel incredibly selfish.
She doesn’t deserve the evil that’s now in her head because of me. She doesn’t deserve to have a man love her whose job is to deal with the dark and depraved. The worst part is I’m just selfish enough to bring it home to her every night and allow her to make me feel better.
She’s been the balm to the rage and unrest that’s been running through my system since we found the first body. As soon as her hands are on me, I feel the tension bleed from me, and I can’t give that up no matter how much better it would be for her. She’s laying in my bed waiting on me right now for God’s sake, and I love her more every day for her ability to shine a light into my darkness.
I was blown away at how well she meshed with my family tonight, although I shouldn’t have been surprised. She hung in there with Levi’s teasing and my mother’s deep inquisitive dive, and when I came back into the dining room after I got the call, she took one look at me and knew. She held her hand out to me, working to calm the storm that was brewing inside me with just her touch.
I didn’t want to drop her off and drive to the scene but knowing she’d be home when I got there made it bearable.
I watch the crime scene unit pack up the gear scattered around the area and tell my guys to head home when they’ve got everything together. We’ll meet back up tomorrow to go through what we know since we’ll need time to put it all together. With it being after eleven, there’s no point in trying to do it tonight.
I walk back to my truck and jump into the seat, but instead of turning on the engine, I sit in the quiet of the cab and watch the rest of the clean-up process. I don’t know where to go from here. I want to go home and let Quinn calm my swirling thoughts but I can’t keep doing that to her. Using her to remove the darkness clouding my mind.
The one person I know I can go to pops into my head, but instead of driving there, I pull out my phone to call. It’s so late I don’t know if he’ll be up.
