Hide My Memories: A Romantic Suspense Thriller Series (Hide Me Series Book 1) (10 page)

West climbed up the embankment and pulled Katerina after him. He could hear her breathing, ragged and quick. He was worried about her mental state and wanted to get her back to the truck as quickly as possible. The second woman was real too, and dead too, and even though they had both known it, the emotional reality of it hadn’t hit West until he saw her body in the stream.

He imagined it had to be ten times worse for Katerina.

When they got back to the truck, he took a moment to make sure Katerina was okay. He looked in her eyes and held her. Finally he pulled back slightly. "We need to call the police." She nodded, a sudden weariness taking over her face.

West climbed into the truck and flipped out his cell phone. First, he called Blaise. Then, he called his lawyer. And only then, did he call the Tetam County Sheriff's Department. He hoped the same deputy that had come last time would come and help them this time too.

But luck wasn't with them. The same four-wheel-drive police truck drove up the road and parked behind them, but a tall, imposing man stepped out, moving slowly and dangerously, like a big cat - a panther or jaguar on the hunt. Mirrored aviator sunglasses blocked his eyes. But still, West recognized him immediately. The sheriff. Acid roiled in his belly. He did not want to deal with this guy.

Sheriff Payne walked up to the driver side door, a hand on the butt of the gun in his belt. When he reached West’s window he stood back and motioned to West.

"Get out of the car."

West looked at Katerina and gave her a look that he hoped projected confidence. He had been afraid something like this would happen, but now they had to see just how bad it was. He stepped out of the car, facing the Sheriff.

"Turn around and put your hands on the vehicle."

West put his hands up in a placating gesture. "Look sheriff, we're the ones who called you. We just found the body. We didn't have anything to do with it."

Sheriff Payne didn’t raise his voice, but he did inject venom into it, leaving West no doubt that he was about to get a night stick to the head if he didn’t comply. "I said, turn around and put your hands on the vehicle."

West did as he was told, wishing he had waited until Blaise and his lawyer showed up before he called the Sheriff's department.

Katerina spoke up from inside the cab of the truck, where she had slid over to the driver’s side. "What's going on? He didn't do anything."

"I just need to make sure the scene is safe for me, ma'am, I'm sure you understand. Now keep your mouth shut." West’s heart sunk. He’d known Sheriff Payne was a jerk the first time he dealt with him, but now he was beginning to think that the Sheriff was a psychopath too. Just their luck.

West clenched his teeth as sheriff Payne's hands slid down his body, frisking him. He heard a clink of metal and said goodbye to any last hope he had harbored that this would end well. The handcuffs closed over his wrists, biting cruelly into his flesh.

"Hey! What are you doing? Why are you arresting him?" Katerina called from the vehicle, her voice on the edge of hysteria.

"Stay in the car, Ma'am," the sheriff told her, his tone leaving no room for argument.

West looked at her, guilt coursing through his insides. He couldn't believe he had been foolish enough to get them into this. Hope filled his chest as he heard a car come down the lane. He twisted his head and saw it was another Tetam county Sheriff's car and his hope stuttered and died. A deputy he’d never seen before got out and quickly joined them, watching his boss warily.

Sheriff Payne grabbed West’s handcuffed hands and roughly pulled him towards the patrol truck. To his deputy, he said, “Arrest her.”

West twisted his head and tried to watch the deputy with Katerina. He didn’t seem to be heavy handed with her. She slid out of the truck and within moments, she also was handcuffed and being brought behind West.

Sheriff Payne pushed West towards his patrol vehicle. He opened the back door and indicated that he should climb in to the modified backseat of the truck. It was fit with a cage just like any normal police car. He then stepped widely back as his deputy brought Katerina and pushed her into the truck.

As soon as Sheriff Payne closed the door, West whispered to Katerina. "Don't worry, my lawyer will get us out of this. He's on his way."

Katerina made a strangled noise, and West's guilt doubled. They watched in tortured silence as Sheriff Payne and the deputy walked gingerly towards the stream. The sheriff said something to his deputy and then continued on alone. He didn't fall as they had. He climbed down carefully and then climbed back up immediately. He pulled a radio off of his belt and spoke into it, then pointed to an area where his deputy went and stood.

Sheriff Payne walked back to the vehicle they were in and opened the back door. West had hoped that he was going to let them go, but instead, he stood back slightly and asked, "Just what in the blue-balled fuck do we have here?"

“A body.” West spat out. “Just like we told your dispatcher. Just like the last one we found in your district. Or didn't anybody tell you about that?"

Sheriff Payne leaned his head back and looked out at the sky, the glasses hiding his eyes. He took several moments before he spoke again. "Yeah, I read that report. Mighty sketchy. You the woman who found that body too?" he asked, directing his words at Katerina.

Katerina nodded.

"What are you supposed to be, psychic or something?"

Katerina shook her head. "I'm not supposed to be anything. I didn't ask for this. I'm just trying to deal with what happened."

"And what exactly did happen? Did you and your boyfriend plant some bodies out in my forest and then decide nobody was finding them fast enough, so you had to make up a story and point them out to us?"

Katerina's eyes ate up her face. She shook her head violently. "No! That's not what happened at all! Why would you think that?"

West leaned forward, hoping Katerina would get the hint. He’d had enough. With as much steel as he could put in his voice, he said, "I don't know why you would think that either, Sheriff, and neither one of us has done anything like that. But it seems obvious to me that you've already decided we did. So we aren’t saying another word until we see our lawyer."

The sheriff laughed. "Your lawyer. That's what you killers always say. But we do things a little differently out here in the sticks," he said and took a menacing step forward. Then he grabbed the door to the truck and slammed it shut.

West leaned his head back against the seat and thought swiftly. How was he going to get them out of this? He looked to Katerina but she didn't look back at him. She was intently watching Sheriff Payne. He couldn't tell if she was purposely avoiding him, or really interested in what the Sheriff was doing.

The sheriff wasn't doing much. Just talking on his radio, then pulling out his cell phone and talking on that. After only a few moments, another police car came down a small lane. The sheriff waved it around his vehicle and then walked up to the truck and spoke to the person at the driver seat.

Then, without another look at the scene, he walked straight back to them and climbed into the truck they were in.

"Here we go folks, our jail isn’t very big, but I'm sure you will find it satisfactory." He didn't laugh, he didn't even crack a smile and West wondered again if perhaps he was a psychopath. Katerina must've gotten the hint, because she didn't say a word. She slumped against the door, and just waited.

West tried to catch her eye again, and again she didn't look at him. West ignored his growing unease. This had all been his idea. And look where it had gotten them. He watched out the window as the small lane widened. When they were almost to the main road, West saw a car turning down the lane. It was Pearson, his lawyer.
Thank God!
He pressed his face against the window and tried to catch Pearson's eyes. But the sheriff sped up and West couldn't tell if Pearson had seen him or not.

He leaned his head against the seat and closed his eyes, huffing out his breath, praying for a happy ending to this clusterfuck.

***

West sat alone in his cell. There were two cells next to him, but both were empty. The Sheriff had brought him in here and another deputy had taken Katerina somewhere else. He had no idea where. He'd already said fifty or a hundred prayers for her safety. He knew this was a police station, but Sheriff Payne rattled him. He wondered how the man had ever gotten elected.

With nothing to do and no one to look at, West's thoughts turned to Katerina again. In his mind he replayed when she had grabbed his arm back at the house and again in the truck, and exactly what she had said she'd seen. Part of him said he should be nervous about this ability. But another part of him said she didn't ask for this, and she was never the kind of person who would use it maliciously. She was just an ordinary person, trying to get along in the world as best she could, just like everyone else. This… power… or ability that she had didn't have to mean anything to them as a couple. If they ever got that far.

West rolled his head against the wall and wondered what time it was. His watch had been taken, and his phone, and everything else he had in his pockets. He hadn't been allowed to talk to his lawyer yet. In fact, no one had even told him what he was arrested for. A thin stream of fear began to overlay his attempts at thinking about their situation. What had Sheriff Payne said?
We do things different out here in the sticks
. But Blaise and Pearson knew he was here. He hoped. They were probably working right now to get him out of here.

His stomach rumbled viciously and he decided it was probably at least 6 or 7 o'clock in the evening. Again, he wondered where Katerina was, and hoped she was okay. Finally, the door across from his cell opened, and Sheriff Payne came in, his face a scary mask of harsh indifference.

He walked to West’s cell and opened it with the key on his belt. He stalked aggressively into the cell with that deadly demeanor of his, straight at West. West scrambled to his feet, not sure what to expect.

Payne stopped inches from him. "You got lucky this time, Shepherd, but if I see you in my district again, you won't be. You hear me?"

West didn't say a word. His muscles twanged and tensed with adrenaline. He tried to decide what to do if the Sheriff swung at him. Fight back? Or just take it? Fighting back was a good way to get shot. He tried to steel himself to take a hit and just go down, if it came to that.

Payne spoke again. "You hear me. But ignore me if you want. Next time, you won't even see me coming." Then he stepped aside, out of West’s way. West took a tentative step towards the door of the cell. He would process all this later. For now, he just wanted to get out of here without a new hole in his body.

When Sheriff Payne didn't move, West stepped more quickly towards the door of the cell. He lunged out of it and then walked stiffly to the door. West put his hand on the doorknob, still expecting the sheriff to spring at him from behind. When nothing happened, he turned the doorknob, and escaped into the outer room. Pearson and Blaise were both waiting for him.

"Where is Katerina?" he asked them.

"We're still waiting for the sheriff to bring her out."

West turned and looked behind him, but the door he had come through had swung closed. He stepped back to it and tried it- locked. Dammit! He whacked it with the heel his hand, and wondered if Sheriff Payne was threatening Katerina right now, the way West had been threatened. He paced the room, sick with worry.

Blaise tried to comfort him. "Don't worry, man, he'll follow procedure. She's fine."

West shook his head. Blaise hadn’t seen Payne in action today. He didn't know what kind of man Payne was.

Another door on the far side of the room opened, and Katerina came hesitantly through it. West looked at her from across the room, not sure what to expect. Did she blame him for all of this? He certainly blamed him.

Her eyes searched for him, and their gaze finally connected. Her face was a perfectly blank mask. And then it broke. She ran for him and threw her arms around his neck. She stood on tip toes and whispered fiercely in his ear, "She's gone from my head. I'm almost free."

Katerina shook out her napkin and placed it in her lap. She saw West throw her an anxious glance, and she smiled at him. She might be poor as dust right now, but she was used to grand restaurants like this. He didn't need to worry about her. While her mom had been working, they had gone out to dinner at places like this at least twice a week. Of course that might've been one of the reasons why there hadn't been any money in savings when her mom had gotten sick. And why she had needed to bankrupt her mom’s estate paying for the bills. Her mom had always thought there would be time. And her mom had been trying to make up for her own dirt-poor upbringing.

West had insisted on taking all four of them out to dinner once they got back to Westwood Harbor. A late dinner. It was already almost ten and Katerina couldn't remember ever having felt this hungry in her life. She hadn't eaten since breakfast, and she'd had a very trying day.

"It's a good thing I knew the judge," Pearson was saying. "Payne made sure to call him during his dinner and paint a vivid story about how you two were found hiding the body. Judge Howard was just about to place an order denying you bail. Payne wouldn't even tell me what judge he had gone to. I just started calling around, and finally Judge Howard admitted he was the one and he had just sent instructions to his assistant. I told him the real story and he called Payne up immediately and told him to release you."

West clapped him on the back. "See, that's why I pay you the big bucks!" He shook Pearson’s hand for the fourth or fifth time since they’d sat down. "Seriously man, thank you. That Sheriff Payne has got a screw loose and I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't gotten us out of there when you did."

Blaise nodded gravely. "He definitely skates that line doesn't he? He keeps crime under control though, and he's never been caught doing anything too illegal, that's why he keeps getting re-elected."

West held up his glass and gave Katerina a huge smile. "Here's to never seeing that sick fucker again."

Katerina picked up her own glass and touched it to West’s. Briefly, she wondered if she was going to have to go searching for the third body on her own. Because she was going. That was for sure.

Sitting in her cell, alone, with nothing but her own thoughts to keep her company, Katerina had decided that no matter if this was a gift or curse or what, there was a reason for it. She was supposed to find the three bodies. They were crying out for justice. They were crying out for rest and retribution. God or an angel or someone had decided that they deserved better than to decay in the woods, never found or mourned, and had touched Katerina with this little ability. In that tiny cage, she had half convinced herself that if she just found the third body, this ordeal would be over for her. She could go back to living her life. She could go back to not being scared anymore.

Conversation at the table turned to the actual bodies themselves. And to the investigation. Blaise shared what little he knew, but so far it wasn't much. It would be days before the report came in on the second body. There had been little evidence found with the first body. That didn't sound very encouraging to Katerina, but she tried not to dwell on it. Her job was to find the bodies, not investigate them. She was certain of it.

After dinner, dessert, and several bottles of beer were finished, West looked at the bill, smiled, and walked up to the hostess to pay it. Katerina watched him go. She'd never seen anybody smile at what was probably a four hundred dollar dinner bill before.

"He sure is a generous man," she remarked to the table in general. "I hope his inheritance never runs out."

Blaise snorted. "Inheritance?" He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head and looked at Pearson. "I wouldn't call running a business that supplies the hose couplings for every fire department in the country an inheritance."

Katerina threw a glance at West, who was still involved with the hostess, and then leaned forward. "Business? What do you mean?"

Blaise looked caught. Like he just realized he had let out a secret. But then he made a face - like it really shouldn't be a secret. "West's grandfather was a pioneer in firefighting equipment. He invented a coupling between two fire hoses that they use in every firehouse in the country now. He was a firefighter and he just did that on the side, but West's father patented the coupling and built it into a business. West took over the company six years ago, after he went to business school."

Katerina's mouth fell open. "West has a degree in business?"

Blaise nodded. Pearson interrupted. "Yeah, he tried to run the company by himself for a year but he went stir crazy and finally decided to hire someone to run it for him, so he could be a firefighter."

Katerina sat back in her chair and tried to puzzle over this information. He probably didn't need his paramedic salary at all. And yet he still went to work every single day. And worked hard.

She threw a long, searching look at his back, and wondered what he was doing hanging out with her and her problems.

***

Katerina and West drove home in silence, each caught in the web of their own thoughts. Katerina turned to him and started speaking at the same time as he said something. "I'm going to go and look for the –" she started, then stopped. She hadn't heard what he said. They both laughed. "You go first," Katerina said.

"I have an idea," West said. "But if you were going to say what I think you are going to say, you should go first."

"Okay," Katerina said. "I'm going to go look for the third body tomorrow. You don't have to come. I know you don't want to see Sheriff Payne again, and I know there's a good chance he might be looking for us."

West nodded thoughtfully. "That's what I thought you were going to say. Here's my idea. What if we go to the press?"

Katerina made a face in the dim light shining from the overhead streetlights. "The press? Why?"

"Hear me out. Today, I was terrified that Sheriff Payne was going to do exactly what he tried to do. While I was sitting in that cell, my mind kept running over all the ways that he could try to pin those bodies on us. He would have gone to the press for certain, and splashed his story all over the front pages. And whatever the public hears first, is what they believe. Public opinion always sways judges and juries. So what if we get public opinion on our side? What if we contact a reporter, and tell her your story. That way, if we get caught and arrested by Sheriff Payne again, at least our story is already out there. He won't be able to find a new judge and spin everything his way without the judge already knowing better."

"What’s his problem anyway?" Katerina asked, shaking her head.

"I don't know. He's always been like that. I haven't had to deal with him much, but the times that I have, I've always come away slightly surprised and disgusted with him."

"So let's say we find our reporter. It sounds like you have someone in mind already?"

West nodded. "I do."

"So what do we tell her?"

"The truth."

"And when do we do this?" Katerina asked, thinking wistfully about the next day. It was their last day off and she had wanted to go look for the body, but she knew West was probably right. As little as she wanted to tell her story – as little as she wanted to be known as the
psychic paramedic
or whatever people would come up with – she knew that talking to someone would be smart. That covering their butts would be smarter.

"I don't know. Sooner is probably better. If we could get it done tonight, then we could go back out to Tetam County tomorrow, maybe." West said, caressing his phone. "Want me to make a phone call?"

"Hell yes."