Love you to Death (12 page)

“Won’t that take awhile?”

“Weeks, likely. You might be able to expedite it if you pay a private lab to do the work yourself. We’d still have to get the okay to take a sample from the body.”

Elise couldn’t wait that long. She couldn’t stand not knowing. “I want to go see her.”

“What?”

“I want to go see the body in person. Maybe I could tell better if I was there.” Standing close enough to touch her, close enough to feel the chill of her dead body.

“We can do that if that’s what you really want, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“I won’t be able to hold my fingers over the body. You’ll see everything. Do you really want that image in your head?”

“No, but I have to know.”

Trent’s jaw tightened, making him look harder. “You didn’t notice, did you?”

“Notice what?”

“The fact that I was covering up her hands, too?”

Elise had been so consumed with not looking where his fingers covered the picture that she hadn’t consciously taken note. “No,” she whispered.

“Yeah. Her hands were missing, too. If it is Ashley, I don’t want you to see her like that. Do the DNA test. Wait for the results.”

“I can’t. I have to do this. Now. Tonight.”

“Damn it, Elise. You’re going to regret this.”

“I can’t regret anything more than I already do. I should have been living with her, taking care of her. If suffering through some personal trauma is my punishment, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Elise stood, waited for the wave of dizziness to pass, and picked up her purse.

“I’m not letting you go alone.”

“It’s better that way.” Better that he didn’t see her break down again. She knew she would. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be unbroken again.

“Like hell. You’re in no shape to drive across town, much less up to Chicago. You don’t know where you’re going. You don’t even know who to talk to.”

He was right. She’d been ready to jump in her car and drive. She probably wouldn’t have even realized she didn’t know where she was going until she was miles away.

“Do
you
know?”

“Yes. I used to work for Chicago PD.”

“Can you give me directions?”

“No, but I’ll drive you.”

“I’d rather go alone.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and the wet patches her tears had left behind. “Then you can wait until tomorrow, after you’ve had some sleep.”

Sleep? Was he serious? Elise felt like she was never going to sleep again. She couldn’t even fathom lying down and closing her eyes. She knew exactly what she’d see.

Headless. Handless.

Ashley.

Trent grabbed her arm, and until then, she hadn’t even realized how unsteady she was.

“Go change. I’m going to call my brother and tell him I might not make it in to work tomorrow.” And just to make sure she didn’t leave without him, he snatched her keys and shoved them deep into his pocket. “We’ll leave in five minutes.”

Elise was ready and waiting on him in three.

Gary stored the dead woman’s lower leg in his refrigerator. He wouldn’t need the whole thing, but there wasn’t time to finish the job now. He needed the cover of dark to get rid of the body.

He laid what was left of the woman inside the body bag and zipped it closed. Her head and hands were already in separate bags and stowed in the trunk of his car. As pretty as they were, he no longer had a use for them, and he knew from experience that separating them from the rest of the body made identification much more difficult and time-consuming for the police.

Gary was enjoying himself too much to allow the police to find him.

He’d just lifted the body to carry it up from the basement when his cell phone rang.

Gary pulled off the surgical gloves, dug under the disposable plastic poncho, and retrieved the buzzing annoyance from his pocket.

It was his brother.

“Hello, Lawrence,” he answered.

“Care to tell me what you’ve been up to?”

Gary knew what he meant, but he found it more amusing to pretend ignorance. “Work, mostly. You?”

“Stop playing dumb. I heard about the woman you met at Sally’s.”

“I meet a lot of women there.” Among other places. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“You’re doing it again, aren’t you?” asked Lawrence in a whisper.

“Doing what?” he asked, just to get a rise out of his stuffy brother.

Lawrence made a strangled sound of frustration. “You’re going to ruin everything. I have a business to run. I can’t have my brother behaving in such a deviant manner.”

“Deviant? Some would say playing with dead people was deviant.”

Gary could practically hear his brother’s spine straighten, each vertebra clicking into place. “I do not
play
with them. I perform an invaluable public service.”

“You burn and bury corpses. It’s not curing cancer.”

“I have a reputation to maintain, and you’re going to destroy it. You’re going to destroy everything I’ve worked for.”

“Only if I’m caught,” said Gary. “And that’s not going to happen, is it?”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to report you, if that’s what you mean.”

“If you’re so worried, then you could always help me. Like you used to.” Getting rid of bodies was a lot easier when his brother cremated them. No muss, no fuss, no evidence. Too bad Lawrence had put his foot down a few months ago.

As if that was going to stop Gary from finding all those women and bringing them home. He’d almost found enough pieces to finish stitching together the perfect body for Wendy to replace the one that had been crushed in the accident. The leg in his refrigerator was one of the last bits he was going to need. Just a few more pieces, and he’d be done. Wendy would be whole again.

Then he could start all over. Give Wendy a sister to keep her company. Or a daughter. She’d always wanted a child, and now he could give her one.

The thought made his heart pound as he gripped the phone tighter.

“No,” said Lawrence. “I run a legitimate business. I won’t risk it for you or anyone else.”

“That’s not what I hear,” said Gary. “I hear you’re working for one of the families, helping them the way you used to help me.”

Haughty indignation rang in Lawrence’s tone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. But I don’t mind. The more the merrier, right?”

“Stop it, Gary. I mean
now
. No more.”

“Or else what? What do you think you could possibly do to me? Have me offed by your new Mafia friends?”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“You won’t do it. It’s too late for that. You’re an accomplice now,” said Gary, just to goad his brother.

Lawrence was terrified of prison. He was homophobic to the point of paranoia, and convinced that if he went to jail, he’d end up as some con’s plaything.

There was a long stretch of silence on the line before Lawrence spoke. “You’re getting sloppy. People are asking questions. It’s only a matter of time before your depravity is uncovered.”

Depravity. Gary had often wondered if there was something wrong with him—if his need to take these perfect, beautiful creatures apart made him sick. It wasn’t as if he’d sought out this passion. It had landed in his lap—literally—the night Wendy died.

It was a gift she’d given him as she departed. A way for them to stay connected even beyond death. How could that kind of love be depraved?

“You’d better hope my hobby stays hidden, because if it doesn’t, I’m taking you down with me.” With that, Gary hung up and pocketed his phone beneath the waterproof poncho.

He pulled on a new pair of gloves, picked up the body and headed for his car. He still had a lot to do tonight if he was going to keep to his schedule.

Gloria wasn’t going to wait forever to be caught.

And Wendy wasn’t going to wait forever for a new pair of feet.

I
t wasn’t Ashley. That poor, mutilated woman wasn’t Ashley.

Elise knew it as soon as she saw the irregular birthmark on the back of the woman’s left shoulder—right above a missing patch of skin. She didn’t dare ask why they’d removed that patch. She preferred to believe it had been done for some sort of forensic test.

“It’s not her,” she managed to choke out.

“You’re sure?” asked the young woman who’d met them.

“Yes.”

She pulled the sheet back up. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, but thank you for coming.”

Elise nodded. “I need to get out of here.”

“Thanks, Dr. Foster,” said Trent.

His arm at her waist held her steady, guiding her back through the hallways. She never could have found her way without him. She hadn’t been paying enough attention.

She still wasn’t. She was trapped in that thick, numbing fog that had settled over her during the drive here. Nothing quite seemed to penetrate except the warmth of Trent’s hand on her arm.

He stopped and spoke to a man Elise didn’t know, signed some paperwork, then guided her out into the darkness and tucked her into the passenger’s seat of her rental car.

“I’m going to find us a place to rest for a while, okay? Maybe get something to eat?”

He was probably tired and hungry. It was nearing two in the morning and he’d missed a lot of sleep the night before helping her search for Ashley’s car. “Sure. That’s fine.”

He got them a room at a motel and led her inside.

Elise sat on one of the beds, staring at the black screen of the TV. All she saw was that woman’s mutilated body, the dead-fish pallor of her skin, the ragged flesh of her wrists. Her neck.

“I’ll be right back,” he said.

She wasn’t sure how long he’d been gone, but the door opening startled her when he came back inside.

He opened a cold can of soda and handed it to her. “Drink this. You could probably use some sugar right now.”

Elise sipped the drink because she simply didn’t think to not do as he asked. The ginger ale fizzed in her mouth and slid down her throat, easing the dryness she hadn’t noticed before.

“Do you think you could eat?” he asked.

She wasn’t hungry, but she hadn’t eaten much today. Or yesterday. Ashley was still out there, and she needed her strength to find her. “Maybe.”

“I can run and get something, if you think you’ll be okay here alone for a while.”

“Okay.”

He knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his. He was so warm. She had no idea how he could be so warm when that room had been so cold.

“Elise,” he whispered, making her look at him instead of the TV. His blue eyes were rimmed with dark lashes that curled at the tips. They were ridiculously beautiful in the midst of such a ruggedly masculine face. Golden shards of determination glowed, radiating out from his pupils. “We’ll find her.”

“Not like that. I can’t find her in one of those drawers, Trent.”

“Not like that,” he agreed. “We’ll find her before it’s too late.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I’m not, but what I do know is that if we give up now, she has no hope. Wherever she is, whatever she’s done, she needs us. If we lose hope now, we’re putting her in that drawer.”

“Then I won’t lose hope,” said Elise, wishing she felt the words. “I’ll keep looking.”

“
We’ll
keep looking. You’re not alone in this.”

No, she wasn’t. She hadn’t realized how much she needed him until now. “Thank you.”

He squeezed her hands. “I won’t be long,” he promised. “Why don’t you get a hot shower while I’m gone? Your hands are like blocks of ice.”

That sounded good. Maybe a shower would help wash away the stench of that morgue and help her drive away the image of that poor woman’s body.

*  *  *

Trent made sure the door shut and latched behind him. Elise was completely out of it, and probably wouldn’t have noticed if he’d left it hanging wide open.

Seeing the corpse hadn’t broken her, but it had come damn close.

If that woman had been Ashley…

He didn’t even want to think about it. Just the possibility that it could have been had nearly killed Elise.

She wasn’t strong enough to do this alone. Not that he could blame her. He wouldn’t have been strong enough to hold himself together if it had been Sam who’d gone missing.

She needed him, and for the first time in two years, he felt like himself again. He really shouldn’t get involved, but what choice did he have? She didn’t have anyone else—certainly no one else with the background he had.

It wasn’t as if he was doing anything more important with his life. Sam could handle things without him. In fact, Trent was pretty sure Sam didn’t really need him at all—he just told Trent he did so Trent wouldn’t feel like he was taking a handout from his little brother. It had fooled Trent for a while, but he knew better now. He’d just been playing along because it was the easy thing to do. It made everyone in the family happy, and it paid the bills.