Husk (19 page)

“
You’re riding with us. Come on.”

Ahead of them, Derrick disengaged the car alarm of a gleaming black Mercedes.

“
That’s your car?” Mallory asked, eyes beaming.

“
Sixteenth birthday present,” he smiled. “Like it?”

“
I love it!”

Lisa gave her brother an obvious look of contempt and opened the rear driver-side door. “Yeah, he gets this, and I’ll probably get a bus pass or something.”

Chris called from two rows over, shouting to Derrick and asking if he wanted back some borrowed CDs.

“
I’ll be back in a sec,” the boy told Mallory, sliding his hand across her butt when he slipped away.

They piled into the car while he went to get his stuff. Much to Tim’s surprise, Mallory opted to sit between him and Lisa in the back seat while Elsa sat up front.

With Derrick not present, Lisa turned to Mallory and said, “My, God. Derry’s all over you tonight.”

“
I’ll say,” Elsa chimed in, checking her makeup in the rearview mirror. “Watching the two of you is starting get
me
hot. This must be like a dream come true for you?”

Tim noticed Mallory glance at him from the corner of her eye and seemed reluctant to reply. “I’m having a good night,” she said.

Elsa swiveled around in her seat to listen, but when Mallory didn’t elaborate about Derrick, her eyes shifted to Tim. “You’re kind of a quiet guy, aren’t you?”

And you’re blunter than a baseball bat,
he thought, forcing a smile. “Yeah, sometimes, I guess.”

Mallory turned to face him and put a hand on his arm. “You were so funny earlier; you guys should’ve heard some of the lines he had. I couldn’t stop laughing. He practically had Cherry Coke coming out of my nose at one point.”

“
There’s a beautiful image,” Lisa laughed.

He gave her a dull smile, then stared out the window.

Ignoring her friends, Mallory leaned closer, touching his shoulder.  “Are you all right?”

“
Actually, I don’t feel so good,” he half-lied.

Her voice came again, this time with concern, and she slid her hand across his back. “Do you feel sick?”

“
Nah, I just have a headache. Maybe I shouldn’t go with you.”

“
We could stop and get you some Tylenol or something,” Elsa said.

Thanks a lot,
he thought.

“
Besides, our parents are already on their way to a movie,” Mallory reminded him.

Shit, I forgot about that. Now I really do feel sick.

Derrick returned and dropped into the driver’s seat. “Okay, all set. I think the only thing left to do is pick out some tunes.”

The boy began to list off his selection of music when Mallory interrupted him. “Actually, maybe you should drop me and Tim back at my house?”

Derrick swiveled around. If not for the uncomprehending shake of his head, he could’ve passed for a half-competent mental patient pumped full of Thorazine.

“
It’s just that Tim isn’t feeling too well—” Mallory said.

“
It’s okay,” Tim interrupted, not wanting to be responsible for ruining the night.

“
No,” she assured, “we were supposed to hang out tonight, but we haven’t had much chance to.” She bit her lower lip and gave Derrick a pleading gaze that made Tim’s heart sag in his chest.

Derrick eyed Tim without comment then refocused on Mallory. “I could drop him off somewhere. You could still hang with us.”

“
Yeah,” Elsa agreed. “Come on, the night’s young.”

Mallory glanced to Tim. “What do you think?”

He met her gaze, thinking of the conversation he’d overheard between Derrick and his friends. He tried not to imagine what the boy had in mind for her once he got her alone. “I don’t think so,” he answered.

The comment drew everyone’s attention, but before anyone spoke up, he opened the door and stepped out.

Mallory scooted after him along the seat. “Tim, wait a sec. Where are you going?”

He stood alongside the car, tipping his head toward the park. “I think I’ll stick around here for a while.”

“
What, all alone?”

“
Not for long. I thought I’d give Derrick’s ex a call and see what she’s doing.”

Mallory’s friends stared on in amazement.

“
What’d you say, man?” Derrick asked from the driver’s seat. He leaned over Elsa’s lap to glare at Tim through the open passenger-side window.

Tim bent to meet the boy’s gaze. “What’s wrong with that? You dumped her, right? Why should she care if I told her you went to a party with another girl but I stayed behind to see if she’d like to join me here? Unless you’re full of shit and screwing around behind her back.”

The boy wordlessly unbuckled his seatbelt and exited the vehicle. Tim straightened up, waiting for him to round the front of the car. He didn’t even flinch when Derrick shoved him in the chest with both hands, slamming his back into the rear quarter panel of a pickup truck parked in the next space.

“
Derrick,” Mallory shouted, but her cry vanished under Derrick’s bellow of rage.

“
You wanna start some shit, smart-ass?”

A family of four had been passing by along the main avenue of the parking lot, and a middle-aged man in beige shorts and polo shirt stopped to face them. “This isn’t the place for that kind of language, young man.”

“
Fuck off,” Derrick boomed at him.

The man got blown back a step by the force of Derrick’s reply. After a second hard look, he hurried after his wife and kids without saying another word.

Mallory slid all the way out the car and stepped up beside them. “Derrick, stop it. You don’t have to do this.”

“
It’s okay,” Tim told her. “Better you see him for what he is, anyway.”

Derrick swung a fist at Tim’s head, and Mallory gasped. Tim sidestepped the blow—seizing the boy’s wrist—and used Derrick’s own momentum to yank him forward, into the truck. He locked the older boy’s captured arm behind his back and—

“
Tim?” Mallory repeated.

He blinked and looked at the others sitting in the car around him.

“
What do you think?” she asked again. “Do you want Derrick to drop you off before we go to the party?”

“
That’s fine,” he said.

“
Or we could all go back to my place,” Mallory suddenly added, turning back to Derrick. “My brother would be there, but otherwise we’d have the place to ourselves. Heck, he’s probably asleep now, anyway. It’s not exactly a rave, but my dad has a pool. We could go swimming.”

A sly grin inched across Derrick’s face, and he didn’t attempt to hide the glance he gave Mallory’s bare legs. “Pool party, huh? That sounds like a plan. A chance at seeing you in a swimsuit beats roll’n with a bunch of ecstasy freaks any day.”

A hint of red crept into her cheeks while she told him the directions to her house.

Derrick started the engine. “We’ll catch Troy at the turnoff on our way out of the park and let him know what’s up.”

On the way home, Mallory and her friends struggled to talk over the blare of the stereo. Twice she leaned over and asked Tim how he felt, but for the most part, she kept her head perched near the edge of Derrick’s seat, leaving him to stare out the window and imagine a whole host of fantasies where he stood up to Derrick and won Mallory’s heart. 

CHAPTER 24

It was past nine by the time Melissa returned home and set about fixing herself something to eat. A lot had happened since morning, but because she’d made no headway in the investigation, she almost felt a meal and a shower were undeserved.

Skipping the shower, she made herself a simple dinner of tuna salad and hard-boiled eggs, accompanied by a large ice-filled glass of tea. She ate in the living room, seated on the couch, where she mulled over the day’s events.

Earlier that afternoon, after the medical examiner had bagged Father Kern’s remains and taken them to the morgue, Melissa stayed behind in the neighborhood. She went door to door, questioning residents if they’d heard or seen anything that would further her investigation, but like the Patterson case in Corcoran, nothing panned out.

Which reminded her; she had one last call to make.

After taking a generous bite of tuna salad, she pulled out her notepad and flipped to the page where she’d jotted down the phone number for Doctor Ryan Damerow and his wife. The Damerows were the closest neighbors to the Pattersons. Melissa had spoken with their gardener and learned the couple had gone to Duluth for a wedding. They weren’t expected to return home until sometime tonight. Hopefully, they’d be back now.

She picked up her cordless telephone from the end table and dialed the number, chewing while she waited.

The answering machine clicked on after three rings.

“
Damn.” Setting the phone down, she turned her attention to the report on Mel and Florence Patterson resting on the table in front of her.

Melissa picked it up, then tossed it down again without opening it. She’d already read it twice. Through all the technical jargon, the coroner’s basic statement was that both people had died from a result of their injuries; the killer hadn’t left a single trace of himself on either of them, not even a microscopic one.

She stabbed at her salad, but then set it aside without finishing. Instead, she picked up the final item she’d brought home with her: Judge Anderson’s copy of Frank’s book.

Opening it, she leaned back and began to read.

The wall clock ticked off the seconds. Time slid by. She absentmindedly twirled a lock of her hair as she scanned the text, but with each turn of a page the twirling slowed. She straightened up as she read, her brow furrowing more and more often as the story unfolded before her eyes.

Halfway through Frank’s book, Melissa slammed the cover shut and tossed it aside.

“
You’ve got to be kidding me!”

She picked up the remains of her meal and stormed out of the room, dropping the salad bowl into the sink a little too hard. She leaned against the counter.

Through the doorway, Frank’s book lay on the floor, cover up. His picture watched her.

In total, the book numbered two hundred eight pages, printed in big text that read, for the most part, like an elaborately worded police report. She’d skimmed through the beginning and middle, focusing on the parts they’d talked about earlier in the day. Despite its small size and simplicity, she scolded herself for wasting the time she’d already spent on it.

When Frank told her of his idea that Kane might have had an accomplice, she thought reading his book could help her understand what kind of a person—if an accomplice existed—she needed to look for. She had three bodies and two missing people who each seemed linked by the dead killer’s identity, so any information she could gain from it might aid her in her search for a suspect.

Not so. She found herself struggling with more questions now than before she’d started reading it.

To her surprise, Frank’s writing had revealed theories he never mentioned when she’d visited him, things he no doubt purposely neglected to discuss. And she understood why. If he’d told her his true beliefs about the killer, she would’ve labeled him insane. Hell, it was no wonder why his book had bombed. For God’s sake, the man actually believed Kane’s partner was—

The phone rang.

Melissa returned to the living room and scooped up the handset.

‘
Private number’ showed on the caller ID.

Hoping for a return call from the Damerows, Melissa answered. “Detective Melissa—”

“
Detective, it’s Frank Atkins.”

Her eyebrows rose in surprise. She paused to collect herself before answering. Considering how much information he’d withheld during their meeting, it was amazing he had the courage to speak to her at all.

“
Hello, Frank. This is unexpected.”

“
I’ll get straight to the point,” he said. “I saw a preview for tonight’s news earlier. They say there’s been a double murder out in Corcoran, that the bodies are a week old, and the killer might still be on the loose. Real nice sales pitch, isn’t it? Naturally, I’ll have to wait until ten to find out if I’m in danger or not, but I was hoping you could tell me sooner. Is what they say true?”

“
You’re wondering if it’s related to Judge Anderson’s disappearance?”

“
Is it?”

“
You know I can’t give out case information, Frank. Even if you were an investigator once, I’m not obligated—”

“
I know Anderson lived minutes from Corcoran, Detective,” Frank interrupted without raising his voice. “I had a friend from the department do a check on his unlisted address.”

“
What for?”

“
I’m concerned,” he responded. “Two murders, that close together; it can’t be a coincidence. If the killer is operating in that area, there are going to be more bodies, and soon.”

She smirked at his justification for becoming involved. “You’re not ‘concerned’ about just any nameless murderer, are you? You’re suggesting it was Kane’s partner.”