Red Ochre Falls (15 page)

CHAPTER 14

We went through each room. Derek helped look around and made sure the
doors were secured.

Derek asked me how
I liked living here. I told him it was an adjustment, but something I could handle.
I went with him everywhere except the prep room, which he quickly checked for
me. “So far, so good,” he announced as we finished locking up the back. “Let’s
go through the rooms to the front then check upstairs.”

We were near the
fridge when it hit me—ice cream. For Derek’s courageous efforts, I
promised to share some with him. I took the ice cream and my baseball bat as we
finished the first floor lock-down. Derek followed carrying hot fudge and
whipped cream.

“I planned to have
this for dessert but was too chicken to come and get it after everyone left.”

“Understandable.”

Soon, we reached
the top of the stairs. The apartment door was open, and I couldn’t remember if
I left it open, or not. I eyed the door and then looked at Derek.

“Why don’t I go
inside first, and take a look around,” Derek suggested. I was nervous about
bringing a guy I barely knew up to the apartment when no one was home, but a
stalker was running around, and I wasn’t about to go in alone. I nodded
quickly. May as well rip the Band-Aid right off! I thought.

Derek entered the
apartment carefully, with me right on his heels. He looked alert as he moved
around inside.

We worked our way
from the front to the back of the apartment, going through every corner of the
bathroom, living room, bedroom—it was only slightly embarrassing when he
noticed my jammies and M&Ms—we reached the kitchen, which is where
the reconnaissance ended.

“All clear.” His
shoulders relaxed and he smiled at me. “This is a nice place.”

“Thanks. We tried
to make it as much like home as possible. We even have a wall clock and a
plant.” I pointed them out to him, like they were game show prizes. “I
appreciate you coming to my rescue, and making sure everything was safe.”

“Anytime, Mattie.
I’m happy to do it.” When he smiled, I blushed. His black t-shirt looked good
against his light skin, and there was something that almost glowed in his eyes.
He was attractive, but this was not what I expected to be thinking about after
everything that happened with Garrett tonight.

“Ice cream doesn’t
seem like the right way to thank you, but would you care to join me?”

“Only if you’re
sharing the fudge and whipped cream.” He said seductively.

I tried not to
think about it too much as I made us a couple sundaes. I topped his with extra
whipped cream, just to have some fun. I poured extra chocolate on
mine—it’d been that kind of a day. “We can sit at the table, or in the
living room, if you want.”

“How about
outside?”

“Come again?” I
didn’t think it was such a good idea to leave the apartment, but he sounded
confident enough for the both of us.

“Don’t worry, I’ll
protect you.” Derek walked to the door. He picked up my bat from where I’d left
it on the living room chair. “Here, you can take this in case I’m not enough.”
Then he winked at me.

Derek seemed brave
enough, so I went along with him. We walked back downstairs and opened the
heavy set of wooden doors. After I unlocked the outer glass doors, we stepped
onto the porch and sat down. With the awning, and my Louisville Slugger, as our
protection we ate ice cream and watched the cars drive by.

“How are you
feeling?” he asked after a few bites.

“I’m doing a little
better. This was a good idea. If we hadn’t come out now, I would’ve probably
hid inside until the crew came back next week.”

“Coming into this
business as an outsider must be difficult for you. I had a lot to learn when my
dad first showed me behind the scenes.” He took a big bite of ice cream and
looked over at his family’s funeral home.

“There sure is a
lot more to it than I thought,” I admitted, and stirred fudge into some of my
melted ice cream. “Dead bodies, strangers and coming in at all hours of the day
and night. Some callers, like tonight, bother me more than anything.”

“I’ve had those.
One night, this guy called in hammered and asked if we’d let him take a peek at
the bodies.”

“Eww, I hope you
told him no!”

“I did, but he
cursed me out. It was hard to understand him what with all the slurring, but I
caught on pretty quick.” We laughed.

“There was a woman,”
I told him. “She called to say her husband had died. She was so choked up, I
could barley understand her when she started. Even when I helped her calm down,
it took a while to get all the information. All she wanted to do was talk about
him.” I stirred my chocolate soup for a moment and looked back at Derek. “I
listened to stories about how they met, and what a great husband he was. It was
so sweet and sad, but I was happy to talk with her. And then, of course, there
are the real crazies.” I stared beyond the buildings into the sky.

“Do you want to
talk about what happened with that guy tonight?” He poked his spoon around the
bowl a little.

“It’s a long story.
I think it has something to do with a friend of mine.” I wasn’t sure where to
start or how much to tell him. “She died recently, and I’m kind of
investigating it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Someone said she
committed suicide, but it just didn’t seem like something she’d do to herself,
or her mom. I started asking questions. Now we think she was killed.”

“We, meaning you
and Garrett?” Irritation showed on Derek’s face and in his tone.

“Yes. Why don’t you
two get along?”

“Long story.”

“You can tell me if
you want.” He didn’t make a move to speak, so I kept talking. “We talked to a
woman at the Coroner’s office, but she was adamant my friend killed herself.”

“You guys saw
Tess?” he sounded surprised.

“Yeah, why?”

“Because Garrett
and Tess were pretty serious a few years ago.”

“He told me,” it
felt weird to talk about it with Derek.

“The break up was pretty
ugly.”

“She seemed okay,
but I don’t think she’s over him completely.”

“Probably not.
Garrett broke it off.”
 

“That’s what he
said, but there was something else. Tess mentioned somebody named Ruggiano. It
sounded like a sore spot between them. I was about to do some online research
on the name when I got the bad guy’s call.”

“I can save you
some trouble.” Derek put his bowl down and turned toward me. “Ruggiano is bad
news. He deals in all the illegal activities around here, and has for years.”

“You mean he’s in
the mob?”

“Ruggiano is the
mob.” Derek was serious. “A few years ago, when Garrett and Tess were together,
she got involved with Ruggiano. She claimed everything was legal then, that she
was just helping him out with some personal business, but something didn’t
jive. Everything with him is illegal, and Tess was getting paid for whatever
she was doing. Garrett told her to stop, but Tess is something of a hard head.
When she refused to stop, Garrett ended their relationship.”

“Wow. How do you know
so much about it?”

“Tess told me.” I
tried to think of reasons Tess might have opened up to Derek about something so
personal, but could only come up with one. Then he confirmed my suspicions.

“We started dating
a little after Garrett broke things off.” Derek looked at me intently, like he
was studying my reaction. I didn’t say a word. I just sat there and wondered
what I thought about Derek. So far, he seemed to be both interesting and
complicated.

“Look, I had a
thing for Tess way back, and she knew it. She was fun to hang out with, but it
became obvious she just used me to make Garrett jealous. It worked. He’s pretty
much hated my guts since then, but I give the guy credit. He didn’t budge and
he didn’t go back. I heard him tell her once it had something to do with
protecting his family. I don’t know much more, we didn’t date long.”

My brain was trying
to catch up with all this Garrett, Tess, Derek and Ruggiano stuff. Once I
thought about it, the questions came. “Tess gave the impression her work with
Ruggiano was in the past. What do you think?”

“Maybe she thinks
so, but once you’re in business with a guy like him, I think you’re in for
life.”

“Do you know if her
work with the mob could be linked to my friend’s death?”

“Anything is
possible. I’d be careful if I were you, Mattie.” He reached for my hand. “I
heard Tess wasn’t the only one working for Ruggiano. The guy still has a lot of
players in the game—doctors, lawyers, cops—and he’s hand-picked
most of them. Rumor around town was Garrett did something big for him about a
year ago.”

“How big?”

“Like get your
license revoked and end up in jail big. Just watch out, Garrett may not be the
guy you think he is.”

“Thanks for the advice.
It’s nice to have someone looking out for me.” I meant it even though I was
stunned by the information.

Suddenly, Derek
leaned forward and kissed me. His lips tasted a little like chocolate, which
wasn’t what I expected, but definitely not bad.

“I’d like to do
this again sometime. Are you interested?” He smiled. I had no plans on doing
anything with anybody until I found out if Ruggiano was connected to Chloe’s
death, if Garrett was connected to Ruggiano and the mob, or if any of these
things were connected at all. Derek had been nothing but nice to me, so I left
the door open for the guy.

“Sometime.” I began
to stand. “I should head in and lock up.”

“Sounds good. Do
you need me to stay and make sure you’re okay until morning?” Derek smiled and
helped me up.

“I appreciate the
offer, but I’ll be fine.” I hoped the scary guy was long gone.

“Just thought I’d
offer. I’ll stay here. Get inside, lock these doors and get upstairs. Then call
me on my cell so I know you’re locked up safe.” Derek gave me his business card
and waited.

It seemed odd to
leave him standing here while I ran like crazy to the apartment, but I didn’t
have any better ideas, so I followed his instructions. I locked the outer doors
while he smiled and waved goodbye. Next, I locked up the big wooden doors then
high-tailed it up the front staircase and into the apartment where I slammed
and locked that door, too. I ran through the apartment and checked the back
door—it was locked tight. I grabbed my cell and called Derek.

“All good,” I said
to him, and almost meant it.

“Good, now I’m
heading across the street. I’ll be there a while, and I’m not far from here, so
call me if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Derek. I
appreciate the help. Talk to you later.”

“Later,” he said,
and hung up.

Everything in the
apartment seemed to be in order except the stillness of being alone. Something
about it felt overpowering. I took off my shoes, shucked off my clothes and put
on my jammies then jumped back into bed. I moved my notes and stuff to the
other side of the bed and clicked off the light. The uneasy knot in my stomach
was either from the massive sundae I’d just eaten, or from the fear someone was
keeping tabs on me.

It had to be more
than just coincidence that every time I asked questions about Chloe’s death, I
got threatened. I tossed and turned until the phone rang sometime after
midnight.

I froze. It took me
a couple rings to get the courage to answer. I slowly reached for the phone,
picked up the receiver and let the business greeting crackle out. It turned out
to be a man—calling from the West Coast—to ask viewing times. I
turned on the light and read the information off the info sheet. He thanked me,
apologized for the late call and hung up.

This time after I
turned out the light, I pulled the covers up to my neck and prayed for sleep to
take over. Once it did, I slept hard, and long.

CHAPTER 15

The sun wasn’t out the next morning, so it didn’t have a chance to wake
me. I finally rolled over around 8, but it took a little time to untangle
myself from the covers. I sat up and scanned the room. When I noticed the
phone, the memory of the crazy threatening caller startled me.

I tried to shake it
off then fumbled around for my cell and checked messages. One of them was
Chloe’s mom. I cringed thinking I’d have to tell her we had no luck convincing
the Coroner’s office to reconsider her daughter’s cause of death. Even worse
was the thought that someone actually believed Chloe could be involved in
drugs. Not the girl I knew—even if she had changed—I couldn’t
believe she’d be addicted to anything except hard work, and maybe Tab. I really
didn’t want to have to tell her mom any of it, but she deserved to hear the truth,
at least the parts I could stomach telling her.

First, I needed
some fuel. Maybe I’d call my mom, Jos, and then I could stall a little more by
doing laundry, or cleaning the fridge and freezer. Excuses came easy when I
dreaded doing something, but the feeling would probably pass, eventually.
Anyway, I needed more time to figure out what to tell Mrs. Ellis.

I made the bed and
sorted out some thoughts. Chloe’s mom would find out, whether I told her or
not, the Coroner’s office hadn’t changed the cause of death, yet. Given a
little time, they might. Just not before Chloe’s funeral. Did Mrs. E need to
hear all the lies about drug use? Probably not. Just to be safe, though, I made
a mental note to ask her about Chloe’s prescription meds. If there was a reason
to poke further into her anxiety diagnosis, I would, but it wasn’t likely to
come to that. At least, I hoped not.

The kitchen was my
next stop. I opened the fridge then went to the pantry to find something
resembling breakfast. A small box on the shelf caught my eye. I opened a box
and snagged a pack of toaster pops out of it. The foil crinkled as I opened the
package. Both pops went in our cheap, old two-slice toaster. It took a couple
tries to get the lever to catch and the heat to come on, but when it did, I clapped.
The scent of pastries warming was high on my list of favorite things. Usually,
I tried to eat a balanced breakfast, but this was quick, and satisfied my need
for a sugar boost.

While waiting, I
tried mom. My call went to voicemail. Maybe she was finally getting to sleep
in, or maybe Aunt Eileen got them to Sunday service. She attended church
regularly.

Mom and I stopped
going to church when I was a teenager—life got too busy. After grandma
died, we went to service a few times after, but still felt lost.

My family would
probably be tied up a while. At least until after service and some
congregational lunch, they were always having at Aunt Eileen’s church. Part of
me wished I could be there with them, even if it meant listening to grandpa
complain about being last in the food line because ‘his legs didn’t move so
fast these days.’

I left a quick
message and decided it was time to hit up Jos. I tapped her name and hit the
call button. The toaster popped just as Jos picked up the line. So much for a
hot breakfast, I thought, and flung the scalding pastries onto my plate.

“What’s up girl,”
she sounded chipper.

“Hey. Just hanging
out here all by myself and wanted to find out how everything is going. Are you
heading back for the funeral?”

“Things are good.
No big fights, only a couple disagreements. I think we’re heading back an hour.
Why? Is everything okay? It’s not your mom is it?”

“No, everything is
okay. Although she and Aunt Eileen are extending their stay at grandpa’s. Just
needed to chat about some stuff.” I avoided specifics.

“Guy stuff?” Jos
always did get straight to the point.

“Yeah, and some
Chloe stuff.”

“What time do you
want me to come by for the service?” Getting through Chloe’s funeral was not
going to be easy for either of us.

“Come over whenever
you can. Just make sure to be here by noon, so we can talk before the
visitation.” I hoped Jos would be back sooner, so we could talk about Chloe
long before we buried her.

“Okay. Hang in
there, okay? I’ll be back soon and we’ll get through this together.” Jos was a
great friend.

“I will, just be
safe coming home. See ya.”

“Later,” she said,
and disconnected.

Just about the time
I finished selecting the dress and shoes I planned to wear to the funeral,
Garrett called up.

“Mattie?” I heard
him on the intercom then walked from the bedroom to the living room to pick up
the phone.

“Hey Garrett,” I
said in my reserved tone.

“Everything okay up
there?”

“I’m fine, just had
a long night.”

“Anything you want
to share?”

“Not over the
phone.”

“I brought donuts.”
He knew exactly how to tempt me. “Holtman’s. Made fresh this morning.”
Holtman’s has been in business since the 1960s, and they make donuts to die
for—even the custard and cream fillings are made from scratch, they don’t
scoop it from some bucket, like other donut shops. And I’ve been to a lot of
donut shops. I eyed the toaster pops then thought about Holtman’s with a side
of Garrett. Yum! My body craved both. Although, I promised to be cautious and
reserved until the whole Ruggiano connection was clear, donuts were fair game,
in my opinion.

“I’ll grab my shoes
and meet you downstairs.”

If I could take
stairs two at a time, I would have, but I didn’t want to risk missing out on
donuts because I got hurt tumbling down the stairs. I guess it’s possible to
eat while on a stretcher, so I said ‘screw it’ and jumped over the last few
steps. It took effort to act composed before Garrett saw me. I pat my hair into
place and walked calmly down the hall and into the office.

My eyes widened.
Garrett stood there holding open a box of Holtman’s donuts. I could die happy
right now. Well, maybe after I ate some donuts. And maybe after I worked them
off doing something with Garrett I’d only dreamed of doing.

Man, I couldn’t
tell if it was the scent of sugary decadence that had me all worked up, or
Garrett in his Sunday best. The man looked fine. I wanted to rush over and
touch him. I mean touch it, the suit!

I planted my feet
for a second and tried to stop the overwhelming feeling I had of going full throttle
toward him. Whoa girl! As bad as I wanted a donut, and the other stuff,
self-control was important.

“Uh, Mattie?”
Garrett’s expression changed from a smile to confused. “Donuts?” He shook the
box a little at me.

Good Lord! I know
there are donuts! I yelled in my head. Can’t a girl have a moment to get it
together before you tempt her any more than she is already?!

I took a deep
breath and exhaled before moving again. By the time the donuts were within
reach, I made my move.

“Thanks.” I reached
in for a cream-filled donut. “What brings you here this morning? Checking up on
me?” I stuffed the donut into my mouth so I wouldn’t say anything else. The
fresh dough, the cream, and the chocolate blew my mind. I had to sit down.

“I guess you like
donuts. Do you want me to leave you and the box alone for a while?” He let a
little laugh escape.

I gave him a sort
of evil eye look, only it probably looked freakish with my mouth stuffed so
full of donut. I couldn’t talk, so I just shrugged and enjoyed breakfast. I
kept my eyes on him and the box. He set it on his desk and took a chocolate one
out for himself.

It was hard enough
to remain calm when Garrett did normal things—like, walking, talking, and
conducting business—but seeing him in action at the gym, and watching him
eat that donut would undo me.

I understood some
of my feelings stemmed from my own hormonal reaction; maybe another part
conjured in my mind, but this…what existed between us felt like more than just
those things.

He smelled good. He
looked good. But, was he good? Or at least, was he good in the ways he should
be? He’d been nothing but nice, and flirtatious with me, but was it his
personality? Did he behave this way with everyone? Or was there anything
special about the way he behaved around me? In the time it took me to analyze
what was happening in my head he’d finished his donut and grabbed a second.

“Mmm, these are so
good!” He took a huge bite.

“Hey!” I yelled and
grabbed a second. “Save some for me!” It wouldn’t be hard for me to get a
second one down, but it would probably be my last for a while. My body could
only take so much sugar before I needed coffee. About the time I had the
thought, he moved something on his desk and revealed the coffee he’d brought
along.

“Goes better with
this.”

A handsome,
intelligent man armed with pastries and coffee had just stolen my heart. I gave
his cup a “cheers” clink and tipped it back. Hot and sweet, just like I like
it!

“To what do I owe
this pleasure?” I sank into the desk chair.

“I thought we should
celebrate,” he sounded pleased.

“Celebrate what?”

“I got the notes.”
He smiled at his accomplishment and took another bite of donut.

I sat stunned by
what he said. It sounded like good news. I mean he wanted the autopsy notes,
after all, but for some reason I didn’t take it well.

Garrett beamed with
pride at retrieving vital information in Chloe’s case, but all I could think
about was last night. While I was getting threatening calls and dead flowers,
he must have seen Tess. How else could he have gotten her notes so easily? She
made it obvious when we met that she really didn’t want to share them. Then
changed her mind when she thought she could use them to get close to Garrett.
It seemed like a logical assumption, anyway.

“Yay,” I raised my
hands for a half-hearted cheer.

His confidence
flickered. “I thought you’d be happy.”

“I am happy, and
also nervous.” There was a whole lot behind the nervous part. Such as, did Tess
come to see him, or did he go to her? It really wasn’t my business, except I
wanted it to be my business. But, more than that, I wanted to trust him. If
Tess was still tied up with Ruggiano, and Garrett had done something for him
once before, could they both still be involved with the mob? What did he do for
Ruggiano anyway???

“Why are you
nervous?”

“I’m scared of what
we’ll find, or what we won’t.” It went way beyond Chloe, but I didn’t share
that part with him.

“You’re worried the
evidence points to suicide?”

“I’m worried the evidence
is wrong, or tainted.” There. I’d said it. He was going to come down on me for
sure, but it needed saying.

“I don’t think it’s
tainted. But, it might not add up yet.” His brow crinkled, he was contemplating
something. “I couldn’t sleep, so I looked it over last night.”

Hey, a crazed
lunatic threatened me again last night, so sleep didn’t come easy for me
either. Maybe Garrett didn’t need to know that part just yet.

“Did you find
something new?” I hoped it was something to contradict the Coroner’s ruling.

“It’s not new, but
a new way of looking at what happened.”

We both sat forward
in our chairs as he opened the file. Before he showed me, he asked for
permission. “Some of this isn’t for the faint of heart. Do you want to see what
I found, or would you rather skip this part?”

“Let me have it.” I
didn’t want to back down.

Garrett pulled out
some photos of Chloe. Post-mortem photos. I wanted to look away—the
images didn’t look like anyone I knew. The girl in the photos was discolored
and lifeless.

“I knew as soon as
I found the needle mark on her neck, something was wrong.” Garrett pointed to a
photo in front of me and explained his theory. “This injection mark was hard to
find, and it was very precise. It may have been made with a small gauge needle.
But it’s still not the kind of mark a newbie drug user could make easily, and
certainly not in a place someone just hoping for a fix might think to try. Too
many things could go wrong—she could have easily missed, punctured an
artery, and bled out.” He stopped while I tried to catch up.

I stared at the
photo. It made me sad and angry. Tears welled up until my eyes could no longer
hold back the weight of them. My head sank and I sat there crying. Garrett
grabbed a tissue box on his desk, they were in all the offices and rooms, and
handed one to me. I gently patted the tears away and my gaze met his.

His warm hand
brushed my cheek. I felt a shock of heat, and then embarrassment. We were
discussing my dead friend, after all. Garrett stroked my cheek until the
comfort and strength he radiated reached all the way to my heart. He was trying
to help me get through this. The least I could do was pull myself together
enough to finish what we started. I looked at him and reached up for his hand.
He moved toward me as our fingers intertwined.