Crone's Moon: A Rowan Gant Investigation (26 page)

All I could do was cry.

The last thing I expected to feel were her
arms slowly wrapping across my back.

In my head, I could have sworn I heard the
lilting Celtic tone of her faint voice saying, “Aye, Rowan, it’s
okay…”

My first thought was that she had now joined
the voices of the dead. It only stood to reason that she would
speak to me from beyond the veil. And, of course, the whispers of
those on the other side had become such an integral part of my life
these past few years that I was rarely surprised when they made
themselves known.

My second thought, when I considered the
pressure I believed I felt against my back, was that the inevitable
had arrived without delay. I had stepped over the edge and was
officially insane.

I continued to hold her tight, letting the
world around me be swallowed by the riotous noise from above.It
didn’t even cross my mind that she was actually alive and well
until the train had finally passed, and I could actually hear her
complaining.

“Row, please,” she said, her voice a strained
whisper. “I can’t breathe.”

I loosened my grip and pulled away from her.
She was staring back at me with her eyes wide. Her tired expression
displayed the cumulative fatigue of the past few days, but she
still managed to cock her head to the side and give me a look of
concern. She sucked in a deep breath and quickly huffed it back
out.

“Thank you,” she said.

“I thought you were gone…” I said, wiping the
back of my hand across my eyes.

“Aye,” she returned with a slight nod. “I got
that impression.”

“Oh Gods…” I whispered, reaching out and
gently brushing her cheek.

“It’s okay, Row.” She gave me a weak smile.
“I’m fine. Really.”

“Told ya’, white man.” I heard Ben’s voice
come from behind me, and I quickly glanced back over my
shoulder.

My friend was standing in the middle of the
service road looking down at us. He was nervously fidgeting,
wringing his hands around the length of the flashlight I had
dropped, and he had apparently retrieved. His expression was a mix
of relief and discomfort all at once, and he looked away as if
embarrassed to have witnessed my unchecked emotional outburst.

I forced out a hot breath and then sucked in
a fresh one in an attempt to relax. I continued to wipe my eyes as
I sniffed, somewhat chagrined myself. “How long have you been
there?”

“For a bit,” he said softly. “Caught up to
ya’ right after ya’ started screamin’.”

“I’m surprised you heard me.”

“Jeezus, Kemosabe, who couldn’t? You were
louder than the fuckin’ train,” he told me with a half-hearted
chuckle. I’m sure the joke was to ease his apparent discomfort as
much as mine.

I let out a clipped laugh as well. “Yeah… So…
I guess I looked pretty ridiculous.”

“No,” he replied with a slow shake of his
head. “You looked pretty much like any guy would if he thought he’d
just lost everything he had to live for.”

The level of understanding Ben was displaying
was a testament to the depth of our friendship. I knew full well
that he wasn’t one for overt displays of tenderness or sharing of
vulnerabilities, so I appreciated his words even more.

“Thanks, Chief,” I told him.

“It’s all good, Kemosabe,” he replied,
raising a hand and smoothing back his hair. “So ya’think we can
change the subject before this gets all touchy feely?”

“Afraid you’ll damage your reputation with
the woodland creatures?” Felicity quipped.

“Maybe,” he grunted. “So what’s up with you?
Ya’ damn near gave us all heart attacks.”

She shrugged. “Aye, sorry about that.”

“So what did happen?” I asked, turning back
to Felicity. “Why are you just sitting here?”

“Waiting for you,” she replied. “I knew you
wouldn’t be too far behind.”

“Look at this,” Ben said, shoving a wrinkled
piece of paper over my shoulder.

I took it and glanced at the scribbles. It
was the map he had copied from Felicity’s bloody rendition.

“Turn it the other way,” he instructed,
motioning with his finger.

I followed his direction and rotated the
paper, then looked carefully at the scrawl of lines. My friend
reached over my shoulder and indicated several points on the
homemade map.

“Service road, railroad tracks…” he allowed
his voice to trail off.

I looked up from the paper and at Felicity.
“Did you find…”

She was already nodding before I could finish
the question. “Aye, there’s a grave on the other side of the
tracks. A few yards off the road.”

“Did you disturb anything?” Ben asked,
shifting into his official cop persona.

“No.” She shook her head. “I haven’t even
been over there.”

“Then how do you know for sure…” he began,
then caught himself. “Forget it. Forget it.”

“Not that I’m complaining,” I said. “But I
was certain you would try to connect with her. Why didn’t you?”

“I would have, but she wouldn’t let me,” she
replied. “She remembered me, Rowan.”

“She what?”

“Brittany and I went to elementary school
together,” she replied. “I’d almost forgotten that myself, but she
didn’t. She told me she couldn’t allow an old friend to be hurt.
All she wanted was for me to find her.”

Behind me, I heard Ben softly whistling
the theme from the television show,
Twilight Zone
.

* * * * *

“Hey! You wanna get off my ass?” Ben’s angry
shout echoed through the woods as he stared down at Lieutenant
Albright. “It’s not like I’m the one who killed ‘er ya’know!”

“Don’t take that tone with me, Detective
Storm,” she spat in return.

“Both of you need to settle down,” Constance
interjected.

“I don’t see where you have much say in this,
Special Agent Mandalay,” Albright announced as she brought her
angry gaze to bear on Constance. “This is no longer an abduction,
it is a homicide investigation.”

True to what Constance had told me earlier,
Lieutenant Albright was well on her way to reclaiming this case. It
was obvious from her display that in her mind, you were either with
her or against her. And, the four of us were already marked as
against. Of course, I’m sure we had been tagged as such all
along.

“The Bureau still has an interest in this,
Lieutenant,” Constance returned. “The fact is you have a serial
killer on your hands.”

“Be that as it may, you have no business
interfering with my command,” Albright snipped.

“I’m not trying to interfere with anything,”
Constance replied with a shake of her head. “I’m simply telling you
that standing here yelling at one another isn’t getting any of us
any closer to solving this crime.”

“I still want to know what THEY are doing
here.” Albright shrugged off Mandalay’s observation and shunted the
conversation into a different direction as she gestured at Felicity
and me.

“They’re why we found the body,” Ben returned
stiffly.

“What are you, Storm, some kind of lap dog?
Do you just let these two lead you around by the nose?”

“I’m a cop,” he retorted. “Unlike someone I
could mention.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

My friend shook his head and looked away.
“Just forget it.”

“No,” Albright snarled. “I want to know just
exactly what you were implying.”

“Okay, you wanna know…” Ben replied,
thrusting a finger at her.

“Storm…” Constance warned.

“No, Mandalay, she says she wants ta’ know.”
He shot a glance her way then looked back to the lieutenant. “It
means if you’d quit fuckin’ around playin’ politics, maybe the
Major Case Squad could get back to doin’ police work like it’s
supposed to.”

“I see,” she returned with a cold chill in
her voice. “And you call what you have been doing ‘police
work’?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Considering your entourage, I would say that
is a matter for debate.”

“Yeah, well who just found Larson’s body?” he
chided.

“That is a good question, Detective,” she
answered. “An even better question would be, just exactly how did
your little group find the body?”

He shook his head. “You don’t really wanna
know that.”

“Oh, but I do, Detective,” she told him as
she crossed her arms and nodded her head. She didn’t hide her
sarcasm. “I do.”

“Listen, I’m not goin’ there with ya’ right
now, ‘cause you’re not gonna believe it if I do.”

“WitchCraft, then,” she replied, spitting the
word as if it was a bad taste in her mouth.

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll take any lead I can get
if it helps me get an asshole off the streets.”

“Even if that lead could compromise the
investigation?”

“There’s nothin’ compromised here,” he
snapped.

“Are you certain of that?”

“Yeah, I am. Besides, who are you ta’ lecture
me on compromisin’ an investigation anyway?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Let’s just say I sure as hell don’t try ta’
help the assholes of the world escape.”

A hush fell between them as Ben all but hung
her name on the verbal accusation. My friend was among the few who
thought she had simply managed to dodge a bullet when Internal
Affairs had cleared her of any wrongdoing in the Eldon Porter
debacle. However, I was beyond shocked the he had just made his
opinion so blatantly public.

The two of them stood staring at one another,
Albright’s jaw working as her mouth curled into a hard frown.

“Excuse me, Lieutenant?” a crime scene
technician edged into the envelope of the standoff.

“What is it?” she barked without shifting her
glare from Ben.

“The medical examiner just arrived,” the
technician answered with a bit of trepidation. “You said you wanted
to know when she got here.”

“Thank you,” she returned evenly. “I will be
right there.”

She continued staring at Ben, and he at her,
as the crime scene tech made a hasty retreat. After a long measure,
she looked away for a moment, then back to my friend as she placed
one hand on her hip and pointedly stabbed the index finger of her
other at him.

“We will discuss this later, Detective
Storm,” she forced the words between her clenched teeth. “But right
now I want you as far from this crime scene as you can get. Do I
make myself clear?”

“Yeah,” he spat. “As a freakin’ bell.”

She didn’t stop there. “And, I want you to
take your damnable Satan worshippers with you before I have them
arrested for trespassing.”

T
he morning sun was
filtering through the green canopy of the trees and had already set
about the task of bringing on the heat of the day. Even with a
slight breeze, it was starting to get hot out here, and the sun was
far from the only reason. The two detectives were squared off,
their tempers swelling outward with a palpable hatred for one
another. I watched on as Ben stared back at Lieutenant Albright,
painfully silent in the wake of her voiced threat.

My friend was ready to fight; there was no
doubt about that. While the lieutenant was certainly guilty of
repeatedly baiting him, for all intents and purposes, he had taken
the first swing. It was clear from his current stance that he was
planning to finish this without regard for the price it may cost in
the end.

I continued watching as he worked his jaw and
slid his palm across his chin then allowed his arm to drop to his
side. His hand clenched and unclenched repeatedly, and I recognized
the motion to be a precursor of him working into a rage. Following
the visual cue, I took hold of his arm and then gave him a healthy
nudge just as his mouth opened. When he glanced over at me, anger
in his eyes, I simply shook my head and mouthed the word ‘no.’

“Is there something you wanted to say,
Detective?” Albright spat, daring him to cross the line.

Ben continued looking at me, and I shook my
head again. I knew full well that what had just set him off was her
verbal assault on Felicity and me. I didn’t like it any more than
he did, but I’d grown jaded to such insults over the years.
Moreover, I wasn’t going to let him jeopardize his career any more
than he already had, especially on our account.

“No, Lieutenant,” he finally growled as he
turned back to her. “Not a damn thing.”

“Good,” she retorted and then looked over at
me. “Mister Gant, I expect you to be available for questioning.”
She shot her glance at Felicity then added, “That goes for both of
you.”

“Whatever you say, Sheriff,” I told her with
my own injection of sarcasm. “Don’t leave town. Got it.”

“Crack jokes if you want, Mister Gant,” she
retorted. “But, make no mistake, as far as I am concerned, both you
and your wife are suspects.”

“You have got to be kidding me” was my
incredulous reply.

“By procedure, maybe,” Constance interjected.
“But, that’s ludicrous and you know it.”

“Is it?” Albright queried. “How did they know
where to find the body?”

“We already covered that,” Ben told her.

“Did we?”

“Oh, gimme a fuckin’ break,” he snarled.

“I am,” she replied. “I’m not bringing you up
on charges right this minute. Now get out of here. All of you.”

“I’ll be staying, Lieutenant,” Mandalay
announced in a cold tone.

“I see no reason…” Albright started.

“I will be staying, Lieutenant,” Constance
repeated, emphasizing the words as she cut her off. “If there is a
problem with that, we can contact the Bureau field office, and I’m
sure the SAIC can give you several reasons for me to be here.”

The lieutenant regarded her silently for a
moment, then sighed and motioned toward us. “Suit yourself, Agent
Mandalay, but I am still lead detective, and I want these three out
of here now.”