Unlovable (9 page)

Booker twisted the baggy with his
fingers, quickly pulling the small notebook from his left breast
pocket. “I believe the guy who attacked Michelle Stringer had a
silver disk in his right ear lobe,” he said, thumbing through his
notes.

“
A silver disk?” I took the
evidence bag from Booker. “The guy in the park last night wore a
silver disk.” I shoved it back into Booker’s hands and stumbled
over to my pleather chair, all but falling into the cold seat.
Dropping my elbows on the desk, I buried my face in my
hands.

“
Book! If I hadn’t hung
around the park after the stakeout…”

“
I know, kid, I know. Look,
you had better get to the school. I’ll talk with the team and head
over to the crime scene, see if I can find anything.”

“
I’m going with you.” I
said, burning my throat as I downed the last of my hot
chocolate.

“
Seth, you’ll be late for
sc–”

“
I’m not going! This murder
is part of the assignment too!”

“
Maybe. This could be some
random killer. We don’t know for sure if he’s part of the drug
investigation.”

“
So why are you following up
on it? Why aren’t you letting the local cops handle this?” I had
him there, and he knew it.

“
Okay, fine,” he said,
slipping the disk into his pocket. “Once this murder hits the
school, there’s going to be lots of talk. I want you and the team
all ears for the rest of the day.”

“
If
we finish this before school ends, I’ll go. The other three
agents can keep their ears open.”

“
Seth, don’t you think
Maggie is going to need someone to lean on when she hears about
this?”

I hadn’t thought about how she was
going to react. She was probably going to take it hard. “Let’s get
going so I can make it back in time for class.” I jumped up,
snagged my jacket from the top of the filing cabinet and rushed for
the door.

“
I suppose when we’re done
I’ll have to write a note for the principal explaining why little
Sethy was late for school today,” Booker said, to which I gave him
an elbow to the ribs.

“
Oof!” He laughed, rubbing
the spot.

I was the first one out of the car and
was taken aback by the size of the crime scene. Tammy Byrne must
have put up a good fight. Booker checked in with the lead detective
on the case.

“
Detective Michaels,” he
said, greeting him with a handshake. My palms were sweaty so I
nodded to him instead. “I read your preliminary report. Have you
learned anything new?”

“
Only that the victim wasn’t
raped,” Michaels said, showing Booker the preliminary autopsy. “Her
face wasn’t touched, but her body was a mess. They weren’t random
cuttings either, Captain. This guy knows his way around
anatomy.”

“
Like a doctor, maybe?” I
asked, though I couldn’t imagine someone who’d spent years in
medical school throwing it all away to be a murderer.

“
Not necessarily. My old man
was a farmer, and we butchered our own cows, chickens too, for that
matter. These cuttings were precise, but crude, not skillful like a
surgeon’s. Maybe the perpetrator’s a farmer, or a
butcher.”

“
Good call. I’ll run a check
and see if there are any local farmers or butchers with a violent
record,” Booker said. “Let me know if any new leads turn up. We’re
going to look around.”

We passed under the yellow police tape
and began searching the area, finding nothing new. I couldn’t
believe the amount of blood there was everywhere, and I prayed the
slime ball had cut the poor victim up postmortem, otherwise, Ms.
Byrne suffered tremendously.

I tried to keep Maggie out of my
thoughts, but it was tough. It could very easily have been her
blood we were sifting through. She could have been the
one–

“
Hey, sit down before you
pass out.” Booker took my arm, steering me over to a couple of
dented trashcans.

“
I know you want to be here,
Seth, but I think you should head over to the school. I don’t need
you fainting onto potential evidence.” I nodded weakly.

Wiping my damp hands off onto my
jeans, Booker arranged for a patrol car to take me back to the
station for my car. He was right. I was useless here. I needed to
be at the school, I needed to see Maggie.

5

Maggie

Stepping out of the shower, I gasped
at my naked reflection in the glass door. The bathroom scale
confirmed my fears; my body had whittled down to 90 pounds. My body
resembled a boy’s far more than it resembled a girl’s. The bones
between my breasts protruded out so effortlessly you could easily
count each rib. It was no wonder everyone kept commenting on my
baggy clothes. Repulsive! Kicking the shower door shut, I tucked a
towel around me and went to dress.

I decided to wear my one decent blouse
and the jeans I saved for special occasions, not that there were
many of those in my life. Though probably a bit fancy for school,
no one would be mistaking me for a boy today, despite my lack of
curves. I laid the outfit out carefully on my bed and went to the
closet for the pair of tan closed-toed pumps given to me by a
neighbor. She’d fallen and broken her arm while wearing them, and
afraid of meeting the same fate, I hadn’t worn them yet. Today, I
decided I was going to be brave. I could be as pretty as Hillary.
Possibly.

After fifteen minutes of working on my
hair, I gave up. I mean seriously, how do you fix flat and dull? I
gathered it up into my usual ponytail, letting it fall lifelessly
down the center of my back and hurried into my room. While slipping
the cream-colored blouse on over a white tee shirt, I noticed there
was a button missing so I weaved a safety pin into place on the
underside. Next, I pulled on my jeans; they were huge. I’d lost so
much weight since last wearing them, they hung dangerously low on
my hips, with an all too easy tug they’d fall to the floor. I dug
out an old frayed belt my mother used to wear when I was a kid and
slipped it through the belt loops hoping my shirt was long enough
to cover it.

The mirror verified my thoughts; if
Hillary were trailer trash, you couldn’t tell us apart. How
completely depressing! With no time left to change, I strapped on
the pumps, at least they looked nice, tugged on my sweater and ran
out the door.

“
Well, hello, little guy.”
On my doorstep sat a small furry dog who was nothing more than a
tan and brown fur-ball with the sweetest brown eyes I’d ever seen.
He began jumping around and wagging his tail feverishly. I bent
down to let him sniff my hand, which he licked, a good sign, and I
picked him up. He lapped away at my face as I searched his tattered
collar for a dog tag. I’d remembered seeing him once before running
free around the park.

“
Okay, little guy, calm
down.” I couldn’t help but giggle as he continued to bounce in my
arms. “Where do you live?” He answered with the cutest little
soprano bark I’ve ever heard. “Sorry, cutie, I have to go to
school.” I gave him a hug and put him back down, and he promptly
began following me to the corner.

“
No.” I stomped my foot
hoping to deter him. He perked up his ears and tilted his head
sideways at me as if to ask why he couldn’t follow.

“
The street is too busy down
here, you might get run over.” He barked and trotted back toward my
trailer. I chortled and hurried off to school making sure to take a
different route, not wanting to chance running into Seth. The
embarrassing park-kissing incident was still foremost in my
mind.

I was able to avoid him all morning,
and at lunchtime, my luck was still holding out, no Seth sightings
yet. I debated whether to go and eat in the library, but if the
librarian caught me, it would mean a six-week ban from the place.
Quietly entering the cafeteria, I took a seat in the back corner
and pulled out my half-sandwich, groaning silently as Melody made a
beeline toward me.

“
Don’t you live over by the
Applegate Park?” I nodded slowly. She smiled and dropped the local
newspaper,
The Democrat and
Chronicle
, onto the table in front of
me.

Local woman found dead
near Applegate Park.

Local resident and college
student Tammy Byrne was found brutally stabbed to death behind an
abandoned building near Applegate Park shortly after two A.M. this
morning. Friends last saw Ms. Byrne as she made her way home taking
her usual route through the park around midnight. A witness
reported seeing a man dressed in black wandering throughout the
area all evening, but said he disappeared around the same time as
Byrne.

The family has issued the
following statement: ’Tammy was a beautiful, bright, young woman
who had dedicated her life to helping others. We are asking anyone
with information that could assist the police in capturing the evil
person or persons responsible for stealing our daughter’s life away
to please come forward.’

People in the area are
being advised to use caution when going into the park after
dark.

“
Can you believe it? Someone
was killed within a few blocks of your house last night. Freaky,
huh?” Melody reread the words aloud over my shoulder, smiling.
Waves of nausea rolled through me as my hands fisted around the
newspaper. It felt like the breath had been stolen from my
chest. It should have been me, if Seth hadn’t shown up when he
did it would have been.

“
Sorry, Melody. I have to …
go … do something.” My brain was no more than a mass of incoherent
thoughts.

“
You look like you’re going
to be sick. What’s wrong?” I ignored her, running out into the
hall. I had no idea where to go, I just needed to be out of the
crowded cafeteria. I ran down the hall and right into
Seth.

“
Are you alright?” He held
tight to my shoulders, a good thing too since it was the only thing
keeping me from hitting the floor. “I’m guessing you’ve heard about
the Tammy Byrne murder?” I stared at him wide-eyed, unable to
speak. “Maggie, you’re okay. Take a slow deep breath. Maggie, take
a deep …” I heard nothing else, it was as though I were sinking
through mud, when suddenly, something strong and warm pulled me
out. Seth. I laid my forehead on his chest, his wonderfully
muscular chest.

“
Deep steady breaths,
Maggie.” Nodding against his chest, I inhaled deeply and held it
for a few seconds before letting it out slowly. I repeated the
process until eventually my head started to clear. I pulled back,
but Seth held tight to my shoulders.

“
If you hadn’t come to the
park, it would have been me.”

“
Maggie, you’re safe.” He
slipped a hand around my neck, resting his thumb along my
jaw.

I looked up into his eyes as tears
spilled down my face. “But Tammy Byrne’s dead. Her family will
never see her again, never hold her again.” I dropped back onto his
chest again crying even harder. He stroked my hair and continued to
hold me, uttering soft words of comfort. After several minutes, I
forced myself to regain my composure. Seth gently wiped the tears
from my face.

“
Sorry, I shouldn’t cry like
a babbling idiot.” I felt humiliated by my childish
outburst.

“
Showing sorrow for someone
you’ve never met is hardly foolish, Maggie,” he said. “It shows
compassion.”

“
Thank you for helping me
last night. I didn’t tell you that, not really.”

“
Don’t mention it.” He
brushed a stray piece of hair from my face, sending a shiver racing
down my spine as my eyes dropped to his lips. I took another deep
breath to clear my head again.

“
We should let the police
know we saw that man in the park.” He agreed, dropping his hand
from my face. I immediately missed the comfort of his touch. “I’ll
call them after school.”

I stepped back to make some room
between us. I was too caught up in the emotion of everything and
needed a little space. Not realizing we were next to the stairwell,
my foot slipped back and down a step. Seth caught me around the
waist before I fell. He also caught me just as Hillary came around
the corner. Her eyes lit up when she saw me in Seth’s arms. I
quickly righted myself and pulled away. Regrettably, I hadn’t
noticed that the heel of my shoe had broken off, and I stumbled
again. Seth caught me, again.

“
Am I interrupting
anything?” Hillary stepped closer, her grip tightening on her book
bag. She was probably imagining it was my neck.

“
No.” I pulled free of Seth
and removed my ruined shoe, thanking him once more. I used the
opportunity to get away and raced to the bathroom. Once inside, I
ran into the first open stall and plopped down, still wrestling
with the nauseous feelings inside me.

Poor Tammy! I should have been the one
killed last night, no one would have mourned my death. The tears
began flowing again. It took more than half an hour before I was
able get myself under control. I fiddled with my broken shoe,
finally giving up and limping out of the stall. To my surprise, I
wasn’t alone. Leaning against the sink, with her arms folded across
her perfect chest, stood Hillary. I hobbled past her and went to
the far sink to wash my face.