3 Buried Leads (14 page)

I woke up with one thought on my mind: I think I’m dying.

My head felt like something was pounding at my cranium trying to get out, my mouth was dry and my eyes were practically crusted together. I groaned in pain when I felt the sunlight from the window hit my eyes.

“I’m never drinking again,” Carly moaned next to me.

“We always say that. Then we dry out long enough to forget what this feels like and we do it again,” I reminded her.

“I blame you.”

“How is
this my fault?”

“You brought the whiskey.”

“You told me to.”

“You ignore everyone else in the world when they tell you to do something but you suddenly listen to me?”

“What can I say? I’m easily manipulated.”

I climbed to my feet and grabbed two bottles of water from the refrigerator. I handed one of them to Carly, who was rummaging in her purse for a bottle of aspirin. She handed me two, which I swallowed wordlessly.

“What time is it?” I asked finally.

“I don’t know,” Carly said. “Why? Do you have to work?”

“Yeah.”

I dug tin my purse until I found my cell phone. I grimaced when I saw that I had missed six calls – two from
Lexie, two from Eliot, one from Derrick and one from a blocked number. None of them had left a voicemail. I had also missed six texts from my mother – all of which had gotten increasingly dire, and threatening. I had also missed one FaceTime request from her – which I was actually thankful for. In my drunken stupor, I would have probably accepted it – and then never heard the end of it. Great.

“What time is it?” Carly was looking at my phone over my shoulder.

“It’s a little before eight,” I said.

“Looks like you were popular last night?”

“Yeah, that’s me, little miss popular.”

We both jumped when my phone started ringing. Eliot’s number popped up. “Hey,” I greeted him hoarsely.

“Where are you?”

“Carly’s.”

“I was worried about you. You just disappeared and then you didn’t go home last night.”

“Carly was having a meltdown and I was a little anxious so we decided to approach our problems with a fifth of whiskey and
The Shining
.”

“That’s a great movie.”

“It is,” I agreed.

“You still should have called me. I was worried.”

“I thought you were mad at me,” I admitted.

“I am. That doesn’t mean I’m not worried about you, too.” Eliot’s words were sweet but his tone was gruff.

“That’s sweet, but I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” I glanced over at Carly, who was pulling shrubbery from her hair. I smothered a bizarre urge to laugh. Carly saw me smiling in her direction and reached over and pulled a twig out of my hair and waved it in front of my face. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that funny.

“I didn’t say you weren’t capable of taking care of yourself,” Eliot barked. “You just seem to wander into trouble, though. For all I knew you could have been lying dead in a ditch.”

“Nope, just falling down drunk in a bush.”

“What?”

There really was no way to explain that. “Have you heard anything else?”

“We’re not done talking about you yet,” Eliot countered.

“Eliot, I’m an adult. If I want to get drunk with my best friend I’m allowed.” He was starting to irritate me. The hangover wasn’t helping matters.

“I didn’t say you weren’t. All I’m asking is a heads up on your whereabouts, especially the night after we discover a bloody rag and broken saw while investigating a missing woman.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, even though I didn’t really mean it. “I didn’t realize I’d picked up another parent, though.”

Carly flashed me a thumbs up. “That’s the way to get him to forgive you,” she said. “Insult him.”

“Is that Carly?” Eliot asked.

“Yeah.”

“Tell her to shut up.”

“Eliot says hi,” I said to her.

She smiled happily. “Tell him I said hi back.”

“Carly says hi back.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Eliot grunted.

“I’m sorry Eliot. I didn’t really think about it. I thought you were mad and I knew I was fine. Next time I’ll text you or something.”

“Fine,” Eliot muttered.

“Fine.”

“So what are you doing today?”

“I have to go to the daily press conference. Then I have family dinner tonight.”

“Again? You were just there last week.”

“It’s a weekly thing,” I reminded him.

“A weekly visit to the asylum.” Eliot was obviously still cranky.

“Do you want to go with me?”

“Not really.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay,” I said wanly. “I’ll call you after the press conference and tell you how things go.”

Eliot was quiet on the other end of the phone. I wondered if I’d accidentally dropped the call. “Eliot?”

“Yeah,” he blew out a sigh. “I’ll pick you up at your house at 4:30 p.m. for dinner.”

“I thought you didn’t want to go?” I was surprised.

“I don’t want to let you out of my sight even more.”

That was kind of sweet.

“Why don’t we meet there? I don’t know how long I’ll be at work.”

Eliot didn’t seem to like the idea, but he obviously didn’t want to make a thing out of it. “Okay,” he said finally. “Call me after the press conference anyway.”

“You got it,” I said with faux brightness.

“Uh, don’t talk so loud,” Carly ordered, covering her face with a pillow.

“I’m going to start limiting your time with her,” Eliot warned, but I could tell he was joking. The storm seemed to have passed – for now.
“Unless I’m invited, of course.”

“You want to get drunk with us?”

“Carly is hot.”

“You’re a pervert.

“Derrick told me you two used to make out to get free beers at the bar,” Eliot explained.

“When did you talk to Derrick?”

“He called me when you didn’t answer your phone last night. He was worried. He figured you were with Carly.”

“He wasn’t worried,” I scoffed. “He just wanted to yell at me because of that whole Devon and Shelly fight.”

“Or, he was worried about you and that’s the way he expresses himself,” Eliot argued.

“Everyone is worried about me,” I lamented.

“Everyone is worried you’ll do something stupid,” Eliot countered. “There’s a difference.”

He had a point.

I showered and changed at Carly’s. I dressed in simple jeans and my new “Looking for love in
Alderaan Places” T-shirt. Only a true
Star Wars
geek would get it – and my mom would hate it. She didn’t find pseudo incest half as funny as I did.

I left Carly sleeping on her couch. I had no idea if she was going to miss work, but I figured she had her own affairs under control and didn’t need another pain-in-the-ass mother figure in her life.

I texted Fish and told him I was going straight to the press conference. He didn’t text back – which wasn’t unusual – so I assumed he had expected me to do just that.

When I got to the sheriff’s department, I wasn’t surprised to see Derrick loitering around the main entrance. He clearly wanted to talk to me before I went inside.

“Hey,” I greeted him warily. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were still alive,” Derrick shot back
snarkily.

“Please, I already know you’re phone buddies with Eliot,” I scoffed. “I’m sure he already texted you and told me where I was. Actually, I bet you knew where I was the whole time.”

“With Carly? Yeah, I figured that out.”

I paused before entering the door – mostly because Derrick wasn’t making a move to follow me inside. “What’s going on?”

“Why do you think anything is going on?”

“Because you’re shadowing me like some creepy lurker.”

“I’m just making sure you make it inside the building safely.”

“Even I can walk without killing myself.”

Derrick regarded me solemnly. He didn’t speak, even though his mocha eyes said volumes.

“You’re supposed to escort me in and out of the building aren’t you? Make sure I don’t get in any trouble?”

“I wasn’t specifically ordered to do that,” Derrick replied. “I was however told that when you arrived, it might be a good idea to keep you in my office until the press conference starts.”

“Why? Is Jake on the warpath? Or is it Shelly?”

“I think it’s pretty much everyone,” Derrick said evenly.

“Great.”

“This can’t come as a surprise to you?”

“It doesn’t,” I admitted. “I’m actually surprised I’m being let into the building at all.”

“It’s a public building.”

“Yeah, but Jake . . .”

“Jake is more worried than angry at this point. You’ve totally fucked things up, but things can always get worse. And, I think he’s actually worried that you’ll somehow find a way to make them worse.”

Well, that was a little insulting.

I followed Derrick into his office, throwing myself into the chair across from his desk. “I didn’t know you were phone buddies with Eliot.”

“He was worried,” Derrick pointed out.

“He was overreacting,” I corrected him.

“You cause a lot of people to lose their senses,” Derrick smirked.

I bit my tongue to keep the sharp retort on the tip of it from escaping. Derrick was one of my only allies in the department at this time, I couldn’t piss him off – anymore than I already had – at this point in time. It would be counterproductive.

I changed the conversation direction instead. “Have you talked to
Lexie lately?”

“Yeah, last night when I was looking for you.”

“And?”

“And?
And she’s crazy.”

“She’s your sister.”

“And I can admit she’s crazy.”

“She’s not crazy, especially for our family. She’s just a little eccentric.”

“She thinks she’s going to be able to start a yoga studio?” Derrick looked beyond doubtful.

“She might be good at it.”

“Don’t you think she should actually teach yoga before she tries to own her own business specializing in it?”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t think like you and I do.”

“Don’t equate my thinking patterns with that tangled mess you have,” Derrick grunted.

“I’m just saying we should encourage her. It’s good for her to have a dream.”

Derrick shrugged. Even he couldn’t argue with that. “Did you know she has a boyfriend in rehab?”

“Yeah, Raymond, she told me.”

“Is he black?”

“Dominican.”

“There’s a difference?”

“He’s fancy black.”

“He’s probably just another loser, and I’m not saying that because he’s black but because he’s in rehab.”

“We can’t change her taste in men. That’s beyond both of us.”

Derrick sighed. “I know.”

We sat in his office in relative silence for the next fifteen minutes, and then he led me to the conference room. He stopped outside the door before we entered. “I wouldn’t ask any questions if I were you. We can’t afford the press conference to suddenly become about you.”

“Wait, this isn’t about you guys arresting Brian Frank? I figured things were essentially over.”

“You figured wrong,” Derrick countered.

“What? How is that possible?”

“Just go in there, take your notes, and keep your mouth shut,” Derrick warned me. “I’m telling you, now is not the time to be . . . well, you.”

I entered the conference room and scanned the crowd. All the usual characters were here – including Shelly and Devon. Shelly was busy trying to pretend she hadn’t seen me, but Devon was heading in our direction.

“Great,” Derrick muttered under his breath. “Do not pick a fight with her.”

“I won’t.” Unless she picks a fight with me first.

“What’s going on?” Devon got straight to the point.

“What do you mean?” Derrick asked evasively.

“What were you two talking about?”

“How Lexie wants to open her own yoga studio,” I replied. It’s technically the truth.

Devon looked surprised. “Didn’t she just get out of rehab?”

“Yes.”

“Does she even have any money?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s a stupid idea.”

Here’s the thing, Derrick and I both thought this was a monumentally stupid idea buried in a mountain of Lexie’s other stupid ideas. It’s one thing for us to say that to each other, and quite another for someone else to say it. My family closes ranks around their own.

“That’s not really for you to say, is it?” Derrick barked.

Devon looked surprised by his tone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to . . . I didn’t mean to insult her.”

Derrick softened his tone. “I’m sorry. We just had a big discussion about this and I don’t really want to talk about it anymore. It will just give me a headache.”

“Or an ulcer.” What? I was trying to be helpful.

“Remember what I said,” Derrick warned me, before moving off with Devon. I could hear her questioning him as they stepped away. “What did you tell her?”

I turned my attention to the podium at the center of the room. Jake had arrived when I had been distracted. He didn’t make eye contact with me. Actually, he didn’t make eye contact with anyone – including Shelly.

The press conference was short and sweet. Jake told the assembled media that nothing had changed. Sarah Frank was still missing. Investigators had no reason to believe that she was dead – although they had no reason to believe she was alive either. In other words, the whole thing was still a mystery.

“But what evidence did you uncover at the machine shop yesterday?” Shelly asked.

“We don’t know that we’ve uncovered anything,” Jake said earnestly. Anyone that didn’t know him would think he was telling the truth. I knew better. Even if I didn’t, though, I would know he was lying. He has
a tell, and it’s his left eye squinting just slightly. I never told him I knew that, though. I didn’t want him to change his behavior. “We’re still looking at some things taken from the back of the building, but it doesn’t look like they’re actually tied to this case.”

That was another lie.

I met Derrick’s gaze across the crowd. He was gauging my reaction. I wisely kept my mouth shut.

After a few more questions, some of which revolved around me and which Jake swiftly sidestepped, the press conference was over.

“Well that was a waste of time,” I heard Devon whisper to Derrick as they moved past me.

“We don’t have anything and we can’t manufacture evidence,” Derrick answered her.

I decided to slip out of the conference room as quietly as possible. I didn’t want Jake’s attention focused on me. Unfortunately, there are two different doors into the room – which meant two different exits. Jake had used the other one and we ran into each other in the hallway.

“Hey,” I greeted him lamely.

“Hey.”

“Um, good press conference.”

Jake shook his head in disbelief. “Yeah, it was an Oscar-winning performance.”

“What do you want me to say, Jake? I already said I was sorry.”

“I don’t want you to say anything. In fact, the sheer absence of the sound of your voice is the best present you could ever give me.”

“There’s no reason to be rude.”

Jake took a step towards me, causing me to stumble back and hit my head on the cement wall behind me. I inadvertently lifted my hand to the back of my head and rubbed it ruefully. Jake was still invading my personal space.

“I’m not being rude,” Jake hissed. “I’m tackling this situation the only way I know how. Now I want a promise from you.”

“What?”

“I want you to promise that you’re going to stay out of this.”

“I promise.”

Jake narrowed his eyes as he regarded me. “I mean it.”

“I have no interest to get any further involved in this case. Trust me.”

“I don’t trust you,” Jake shot back.

“Then trust the fact that I have family dinner tonight so I can’t get involved.” I’m always pragmatic.

Jake searched my face for traces I was
lying before finally taking a step back. “Maybe you should have family dinner for the whole weekend?” He suggested.

“Yeah, that would drive me crazy.”

“It would be a nice change of pace for me, though.”

“I told you I wasn’t going to get any further involved – and I meant it,” I repeated.

Jake moved sideways to allow me to leave. “I’m trusting you, Avery. Don’t make me regret it.”

I left the building without looking back. I could feel Jake’s eyes trained on my back for the entire trek down the hall, though. He obviously didn’t trust me. He was right not to.