Nearly Departed in Deadwood (39 page)

      “It’s good to see you breathing, girl.” Harvey blinded me with a flashlight. “Shit. Where are your eyebrows?”

     
Chapter Twenty-Five

     
Sunday, July 22nd

      I dragged my sorry ass out of bed the next afternoon feeling like I’d spent the last ten hours tumbling around in a clothes dryer. Every muscle ached; my throat was scratchy, skin too tight, hair frazzled, eyes dry, ears clanging, and forehead bruised and pounding from when I’d fallen head-first out of my chair.

      A splash of cold water didn’t cut it, so I tossed back a couple of aspirin and crawled into the shower, shuddering to life under a freezing spray. After standing in front of my closet for several minutes, I grabbed a sleeveless dark-green denim dress with copper snaps that ran the length of it, ending at my shins, and slipped on my favorite cowboy boots. I scrounged through my underwear drawer and found a pair of terry-cloth wristbands from my racquetball days of old to cover my bandaged rope burns. Brushing my curls hurt too much, so I shoved a couple of hair combs into the rat’s nest and called it good.

      The smell of fresh-baked brownies lured me downstairs and reeled me into the kitchen. Aunt Zoe stood at the sink washing the brownie pan.

      “Morning,” I mumbled as I stumbled across the linoleum. Halfway to the coffee maker, I noticed Aunt Zoe had company.

      “’Bout time you rolled out of bed, Wonder Woman!” Harvey hollered.

      I cringed and poured myself a tumbler of black brain juice. My head hurt too much to handle the sound of Harvey’s voice, especially when he had the volume cranked up.

      “Nice wristbands, Chris Evert.” He kicked out the chair next to him as I approached. Always the gentleman. “Hey, your eyebrows are back.”

      Not really. His eyesight just wasn’t so good. I’d penciled in the scorched parts after camouflaging my head bruise with cover-up.

      Avoiding his gaze, I dropped into the chair and gulped down half of the cold, bitter dregs. Aunt Zoe slid a plate of brownies under my nose. I grunted my thanks. Maybe warm chocolate would soften the effects of Harvey’s crusty personality.

      Harvey stole a brownie from my plate. “Coop called for you this morning?”

      “What does Detective Cooper want?”

      Aunt Zoe pulled out the chair across from me. “He has a few more questions for you.”

      Hadn’t we talked enough last night at the hospital while I was being checked out for smoke inhalation and having my wrists wrapped? I’d told him my story three times already. Did he think a few hours of sleep would change the ending?

      “I’ll call him on the way to work. Can I borrow your cell phone today?” I asked Aunt Zoe. “Mine’s under the weather.”

      “Sure, but you’re not going into the office today, are you?” Aunt Zoe frowned at me over her glass of iced tea. “Not after all you went through last night.”

      I nodded, swallowing some brownie. “I don’t have time to play victim. I have a house to sell.” Neither rain, snow, sleet, nor psychotic murderers could keep me from trying to save my job. Besides, I wanted to see Doc. With luck, I’d find him in his office.

      Harvey wiped his hands on the napkin Aunt Zoe handed him. “Coop says they found where that nut job stored the bodies.”

      I raised one brow, which was all I could manage at the moment.

      “He said something about chunks of hair and scalp in the root cellar,” Harvey snatched another brownie, “and a bad smell.”

      Grimacing, I dropped the rest of my brownie on my plate.

      “Coop also mentioned that they found evidence of several big bags of rock salt in what’s left of the basement. He figures Hessler was gutting and stuffing the bodies with the salt, then packing them in it to dry out the corpses.”

      “Packing them? Where? Like a barrel?”

      “Cooper thinks Hessler used the tub. It’s one of the few things that survived the fire.”

      The crystal! My hands grew clammy. Holy frickin’ moly, I bet that was rock salt I’d found in Wolfgang’s bathroom that day I was searching for Addy upstairs. That would explain why the crystal disappeared after being through a wash cycle.  

      “Maybe we should talk about this later,” Aunt Zoe suggested.

      “That’s okay,” I said and sat back in my chair. “Keeping quiet now won’t change what happened. Besides, it’s better coming from you two than Detective Cooper.”

      “You sure you’re up to it?” Aunt Zoe searched my face.

      “Sure, she is,” Harvey answered for me. “She’s no shrinking Violet.”

      Especially if I keep eating brownies for breakfast.

      “Look at how she took out Wolfgang on her own,” he added.

      My cheeks warmed. Not entirely on my own. The duvet deserved most of the credit, I just delivered the knockout blow.

      Harvey patted my head as though I was a good bluetick hound who’d treed a raccoon. “And Doc Nyce told me that she was about to jump out the window when he found her.”

      More like dangle from the sill and scream bloody murder until the neighbors came running, but I liked Doc’s version better.

      “Speaking of Doc.” I set my empty cup on the table. “How did you two know where to find me? Or to even come looking?”

      “That was Layne’s doing,” Aunt Zoe said.

      “Layne?”

      Harvey nodded, grabbing the penultimate brownie from my plate. “That’s one smart kid you got.”

      I’d known that since back when he’d asked Santa for a thesaurus and a set of training wheels, but, “How did
he
know?”

      “When you didn’t show up by nine,” Aunt Zoe explained, “he called me at the gallery, insisting something was wrong. By the time I closed up and drove home, he’d phoned just about every restaurant in Deadwood and Lead looking for you.”

      “There was no talkin’ the kid out of it,” Harvey added. “He insisted you were in trouble. Turns out the little shit had been spying through the curtains with a pair of binoculars earlier when Wolfgang arrived and he’d seen a padlock fall out of Wolfgang’s pocket when he’d crawled out of the car.”

      “A blue padlock,” Aunt Zoe continued. “Layne remembered it from the root cellar door in Wolfgang’s backyard.”

      I remembered talking with Layne about that root cellar door—and the padlock. It all made sense now. The memory of Wolfgang standing in this very kitchen and talking to my kids with that padlock in his pocket made me shiver.

      “By that time,” Harvey said, “Layne had Addy all buggered-up about you being in danger and she begged me to call Doc.”

      “Doc?” I asked, sitting forward. “Don’t you mean Natalie?”

      “No, she insisted on Doc. Said he would rescue you. Even knew his cell phone number.”

      My eyes narrowed. Somebody must have nosed through my purse when I wasn’t paying attention. Little Miss Matchmaker and I were going to have to have a talk about boundaries again.

      “Lucky for me, Doc had his cell phone turned on,” Harvey continued. “He picked me up and we cruised by the Hessler house. The place was dark, but we’d promised Layne we’d check out that root cellar door. While we were monkeyin’ around in the back, we heard glass break out front. By the time we got around the house, you were up there squealing like a half-castrated pig.”

      I scowled. He could’ve come up with a more flattering simile.

      Harvey stood and grabbed a beer from the fridge. “You should have seen Doc go at Hessler’s front door. His shoulder is gonna hurt for days.”

      I’d be happy to kiss it better. It’s the least I could do.

      Aunt Zoe looked at me, her brows raised, suspicion glinting in her eyes. I hurried to change the subject. “What did Coop have to say about the ear?”

      I’d filled in Aunt Zoe about Harvey’s creepy visitor yesterday. Her gaze flew back to Harvey. “Surely somebody missing an ear has shown up at one of the hospitals around here by now.”

      “Nope, not a one. Coop mentioned that the ear had been sent off to some lab to be looked at.” He cracked open the can. “He and some of the sheriff’s deputies checked out that mine up behind my barn. They found a few things. Something made a nest.”

      I shivered clear through my toes. “What kind of things?”

      Shrugging, Harvey said, “Broken glasses, an old boot, dirty skivvies, a half-eaten possum. Oh, and teeth.”

      “Teeth?” Aunt Zoe asked, reading my mind.

      “Coop says they look human. He mentioned something about bones, too. Didn’t say from what.”

      “Jesus, Harvey.” I sat back, feeling a bit winded.

      “Something’s been diggin’ in that old cemetery on the back end of my property again, too. At first I thought some mountain goats had broken through the fence, but it’s still up.”

      “Maybe you shouldn’t be staying out there alone for awhile,” I said. “At least until Coop figures out what’s going on.”

      “There’s room in my basement,” Aunt Zoe offered.

      “Nah. I’ll be fine. Bessie is good company. Besides,” he winked, “I wouldn’t want to upset the good thing I got goin’ on next door, and whatever whangdoodle was up there is long gone.”

      “Whangdoodle?” Aunt Zoe and I asked in harmony.

      “That’s what my pappy used to call the crazy kooks who’d wander too far from Slagton.”

      “I thought that town was abandoned decades ago,” Aunt Zoe said. “After that big mining accident.”

      “Nope. There are quite a few stragglers still holding out, living in the surrounding hills.”

      The back screen door opened.

      “Natalie’s here,” Addy shouted as she galloped inside. She skidded to a stop at the sight of me sitting at the table. “Oh, hi, Mom. What’s wrong with your eyebrows?”

      “I’m trying a new look.” It was called almost-burned-alive. “What do you think?”

      “You should stick with your old look. How was your date with Wolfgang?”

      I glanced at Aunt Zoe, who said, “After Harvey called me last night, I let the kids know that you were fine and had just lost track of time.”

      “Thanks.” I’d need to explain the truth to Addy and Layne sometime soon, but not until I could talk about it without trembling. I turned to Addy. “I’ve had better dates.”

      “Oh.” Her smile dimmed a few watts. “Are you going to see him again?”

      Only in my nightmares. “Probably not.”

      “That’s too bad. He seemed really nice.”

      Yes, he had. I’d been blinded by his ultra-white teeth. I fluffed her hair. “There are a lot more nice guys out there.”

      “Like Doc?” she asked, her eyes twinkling.

      “Like Doc what?” Natalie walk-rolled into the kitchen, her cast resting on a little cart with handle bars. She stopped next to the table, extracted an iced latte from her tote bag, and handed it to me. “I figured you might need this.”

      “You’re an angel.” I sipped from the straw and shuddered as cold, sugared caffeine poured down my throat. I pointed at the cart. “Where’d you get that contraption?”

      “It’s my
special gift
from Doc.”

      “He gave you that?” Not the most romantic gift. Very practical, very generous, but a bit odd. Kind of like Doc himself. Maybe I’d ask him about it sometime.

      “Isn’t he the most thoughtful guy?”

      I swallowed my gag and changed the subject. “How are your parents?”

      “Jeez, Vi. You look like you’re wearing a turtleneck.” Natalie leaned over and unsnapped the top three snaps on my dress, exposing an eyeful of cleavage. “There, that’s better. My parents are fine, but Mom’s worried about you.”

      Natalie’s mother had taken me under her wing when I was a fledgling. Yet another reason I needed to keep my talons off Doc. Disappointing my pseudo-mother would be almost as bad as making my best friend cry.

      Harvey held out his chair for Natalie, which she fell into with a sigh. “How sweet is it that Doc rescued you?”

      The hair on the back of my neck bristled at her cooing tone. Doc was my white knight battling the fire-breathing dragon in my fairy tale—not hers. 

      “What does she mean Doc rescued you?” Addy asked. “From what?”

      “I’ll tell you later.”

      “Nobody ever tells me anything,” Addy bemoaned.

      “I promise I will.” I squeezed her hand. “But I need you to do me a favor right now.”

      “Fine!” So much attitude for such a small body. “What?”

      “Go get the twenty-dollar bill out of my wallet, grab your brother, walk to the Candy Corral, and buy whatever you want.”

      Addy’s mouth fell open, her eyes bugged. “Really? Can we?”

      “Just be careful and don’t talk to strangers.” Especially any offering sparkly jewelry. I’d searched for Addy’s jewelry box for her unicorn broach late last night and come up empty. She must have it stashed somewhere else. I’d have to keep an eye out for it so I could make it magically disappear. “And get back here as soon as possible,” I added. No need to completely let go of the reins, exterminated monster or not.

      She squeezed me around the neck with her cast-free arm. I wrapped my arm around her and clutched her against my side, turning and inhaling her fruity-sweet smell, blinking back an ambush of tears. I’d come close to losing this. Too close.

      “Mom, you’re squishing my cast.”

      “Oops.” I sniffed and released her. “Now get out of here.”

      “Okay. Be back in a bit!” She ran out the back door screaming her brother’s name.

      With Addy out of earshot and my eyes no longer leaking, I turned to Natalie. “Sorry we interrupted your evening with Doc last night.”

      A white lie on my part, nearly transparent in the daylight.

      “Oh, you didn’t interrupt anything. Doc was saying goodbye when his cell phone rang.”

      Did that goodbye involve any kissing?

      “Are you two going out again?” I ignored the pointed look that Harvey was giving me.

      “I hope so.”

      “You haven’t made any plans, though?” Much more pressing on my part and I’d be leaving fingerprint bruises on her.