R. E. Bradshaw - Rainey Nights (11 page)

“Not just the baby thing, and good lord that’s enough, but you’re also building a house. You changed your sexuality about a minute ago and you and Katie haven’t even had time to deal with that. You were both traumatized when you found each other. That’s not usually a recipe for a long-term relationship. These are life changing steps you’re about to undertake and they are happening at a record pace, in my humble opinion.”

“Ernie, you’ve never had a humble opinion in your life,” Rainey said, laughing, unable to be offended by the older woman’s prodding.

“Don’t be a smartass. You know I’m right,” Ernie shot back.

Rainey reached over and patted Ernie’s leg. “Okay, okay, I know you’re just worried. Look, I appreciate that this all appears very fast and I do recognize that Katie and I met under less than ideal circumstances. This whole falling for a woman thing took me by surprise, too.” She shook her head and chuckled. “I mean, come on, this was the last thing I thought was going to happen to me.”

Ernie’s voice came out softer when she said, “Is it because of what that man did to you? I mean, I wouldn’t blame you if you never wanted another man within a mile of you.”

Rainey returned her hand to the wheel and gripped it a little tighter. She rarely thought about the attack, but when she did the rush of emotion would often overwhelm her. Not this time. She held the flashing pictures in her mind at bay. She took her eyes off the road just long enough to make eye contact with Ernie, who looked sincerely worried.

“No, Ernie, that is not why I’m with a woman. I’d be foolish to say that having a relationship with a man after that would not have had its challenging moments, but I hold no animosity towards men in general. A man didn’t do what happened to me; a monster did. Believe me, there is a distinct difference. My being with Katie has more to do with who she is than what sex she is. I don’t know that I would be attracted to other women like I am to Katie. It just feels right. It feels permanent.”

Ernie didn’t let up. “Okay, but this having a baby is a huge step.”

Rainey considered her response carefully. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I haven’t had moments of doubt. Not doubts about Katie and me, but I’ve worried that we were rushing into this, that I was caught up in glow, and so eager to please her that I said yes without thinking.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Ernie interjected.

Rainey waved a hand and cut her off. “Wait, I’m not finished. I fully believe whether she was with me or not Katie would still be doing this. Losing the baby last year just made her want a child even more. If this is that important to her, how could I not say yes? I promised to support her in this decision and that’s what I’m going to do. Katie is a package deal.”

Ernie turned in the seat to face Rainey. “How do you feel about becoming a parent?”

“Katie is just going through the process of preparing for the procedure. The actual attempts to get pregnant will come later. The doctor just wants to make sure she’s fully recovered from all the trauma she went through last year.”

“Rainey, that’s not what I asked you. Are you ready to be a parent?”

Rainey smiled at Ernie. “This is going to surprise you, but yes I am. I can’t imagine anything more satisfying than having a family with Katie.”

“It’s a lifelong commitment,” Ernie said, adding, “You do realize you can’t just put food on the floor and let it in and out a doggie door?”

“I was thinking of using a shock collar and an electric fence. Is that too much?” Rainey grinned and winked, making the turn toward the Capital. She wasn’t looking at Ernie when she casually added, “Besides, Katie’s the mother.”

Ernie burst into loud howls of laughter. “You think Katie is going to handle all the child stuff and your life is going to go on just like it is. You think about this moment when you’re rocking a screaming child at two a.m., smelling like vomit and dirty diapers, while Katie is passed out trying to grab just a few minutes of sleep. Honey, your life will never be the same.”

The image was too real for Rainey. She shook her head and tried to make a joke. “I’ll have to use all those great parenting skills I learned from my mother.”

It only egged Ernie on. She started a different tack. “And you’re going to build a house this year, too. Which comes first, the baby or the construction?”

“We meet with the architect next Monday. Should start building in a month or two. In a perfect world, it will be done by the end of summer, but I’m guessing fall probably. I don’t know how long it will take for Katie to get pregnant.” She paused and glanced at Ernie, before continuing, “Hey, I was going to build a house on that land anyway. That’s what Dad and I talked about.”

Ernie shook her head. “I’m just worried about you… and Katie, for that matter. I hope beyond hope that all your dreams come true, but be careful.” She stopped talking and stared ahead. Then she added softly, “I don’t know that you can take another heartbreak.”

It had been a very wet fall and winter in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. The lakes and rivers swelled beyond their banks, receding slowly back to normal levels only recently. The drought stricken region needed the moisture. The barren trees of winter siphoned the water into their roots, filling out with new growth, as the warm spring days grew longer.

Today was just such a day. The cool of morning gave way to temperatures in the low seventies. Although it was overcast, the warm air brought people outside for their first forays of the spring. While Rainey and Ernie ate lunch in downtown Raleigh, a young couple decided to take a canoe ride along the Eno River, northeast of Durham.

The students, from the nearby university, escaped the cramped walls of dorm life for fresh air and sunshine. The previously high waters left behind fishing lures, odd items of clothing and trash, among other things, tangled with logs and branches bunched against the bank. Paddling along the shoreline, the couple came upon a large object, tied in thick black plastic, and partially submerged beneath a logjam. The young man poked it with his paddle. Not satisfied, he pulled out his pocketknife, and began to cut the plastic.

“Stop it, Jeremy. It’s probably a dead animal, a deer carcass or a dog… just leave it,” the dark haired coed said to her boyfriend.

“I want to see what it is. It could be a body or something,” her companion answered.

“Great. If it is a body, you’re destroying evidence and if it isn’t you’re going to get deer guts or some crap on you and then want to get back in my car. No way!”

The boy inside the young man would not let him leave a potential glorious find. He sliced at the wrapping, pulling back several layers.

The girl covered her mouth and nose. “Oh my God, it smells horrible.”

The boyfriend turned to look her, his left hand still gripping the last layers of plastic.

“Are you ready to see what I’ve discovered?” he asked in a mock mad scientist voice.

He started to chuckle, but swallowed the laugh when his girlfriend’s face went pale. He turned back to the plastic cocoon and nearly fell backwards out of the canoe from the shock, before he started slapping the water frantically with his paddle, backing the boat away as quickly as he could.

Shriveled black fingertips, protruding from hands wrapped in duct tape, extended out from the blackness of the package. A primal scream finally left the girl’s mouth after seconds with no sound but the panicked paddling efforts of her boyfriend. The young man paddled faster, leaving the horror behind them. Neither would soon forget what they had seen.

#

Rainey clicked on the blinking box at the bottom of the monitor screen. The news alert distracted her from the mundane paperwork that occupied her afternoon. Rainey had been at it since she and Ernie got back from lunch, around one o’clock. Being in the bail bond business was not all “Dog the Bounty Hunter” excitement. There was far more desk duty involved than would make for a good reality show. She spent the hours since arriving back at the office trying to put a dent in the files piled on her desk. She made phone calls, sent emails, did a bit of cyber searching, and filled in the blanks of countless forms, which was quite a feat since she hated sitting still. She was ready for a distraction when the alert caught her eye. She clicked on it.

When the page loaded, the headline read, “Body of Woman Found on Eno River.”

Remembering her morning conversation with Katie, she scanned the story. The headline said all there was to say at the moment. The body was discovered by some college students and reported to the police a little after noon today. Other than the couple’s story of being a bit shaken by the experience, the article had few details. The body was recovered and transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office. The police spokeswoman did say they were not ready to link the body to the missing woman from Durham.

Rainey looked at the digital clock in the corner of the screen. She had fifteen minutes to shut down the office for the day and be home for dinner by five. Rainey glanced out the wall of windows overlooking the docks and the lake beyond. There were still a couple of more hours of sunlight left. Maybe Katie would go fishing with her after supper. She closed the open files on her screen and shut down the computer. Last spring she would have stayed in the office and then gone out with Mackie to track a bail jumper, arriving back at the office in the early morning hours to collapse on the couch and drink herself to sleep. Katie changed all that.

Rainey had the rules of the FBI to live by for the past fifteen years. Before that, she had a demanding college career and her father to keep her on track. When she lost both her father and her career, all that structure disappeared. Although Ernie and Mackie tried their best, they could not stop the train wreck that was Rainey’s life before Katie.

Katie quickly determined she didn’t like spending so many nights home alone. They couldn’t plan anything, because Rainey would tear off after a bail jumper at a moment’s notice. She put her pretty blond head to work and came up with a solution. Rainey smiled, remembering that she was holding Katie against her naked body, at the time of the conversation that changed the way they ran the business.

“Rainey, I realize that you do not have a nine to five job, but you have to set aside time for your personal life,” Katie said, about a month after they settled into their new life together. “You need to get on some kind of regular schedule. It’s not healthy to work the hours you do with no breaks.”

“Criminals don’t take breaks. I have to go when I know where they are.”

Katie rested her chin on Rainey’s chest, her blue eyes locked on Rainey’s.

“Why can’t you and Mackie let Junior do more of the staking out? Put him on full-time. He can use a few of those contract guys and then call you and Mackie if he can’t handle it. You wouldn’t have to sit in the car all night just waiting.”

Rainey ran a hand through Katie’s hair, brushing the stray strands from her face. She asked Katie, “What would Mackie and I do then?”

“Concentrate on catching them in the day time.”

It sounded simple enough, but Rainey thought Katie was just being naïve. Even so, Rainey would have agreed with anything said by the woman in her arms, but Katie had turned out to be wise, too. They added Junior to the staff. Rainey and Mackie worked out a schedule that suited everyone, including Katie. Ernie was the only one of them that kept a regular schedule up until that point. Since the new hours went into place Mackie and Rainey’s health and attitudes had improved dramatically, not to mention how much their significant others were enjoying them being at home more. The business had not suffered at all. Rainey had to admit she liked this arrangement much better. It was the closest thing to regular job hours Rainey ever had.

Ernie’s head popped into the doorway, breaking Rainey from her thoughts. “You about ready to call it quits, today?”

Rainey took one last look at her desk, cut off the lamp, and stood up. “Yeah, I better get moving. Can’t be late for supper.”

“Boy, she’s got you wrapped around her finger,” Ernie said, poking fun at Rainey.

Rainey started for the door, laughing. “It’s not that. She cooks these amazing meals and she times everything out. If I’m late it won’t be perfect and she’ll be disappointed.”

Ernie patted Rainey on the back as she passed through the doorway and followed her into the main office. “Well, bless your heart. Aren’t you just the sweetest thing?”

Rainey answered, laughing, “Yes, yes I am.”

Rainey took the daily ribbing from Ernie with the intention it was meant. Ernie loved her and she thought the world of Katie, but she earned the right to poke at Rainey. Ernie had nursed Rainey through some of her darkest days and any perverse pleasure she got out of tormenting the now gloriously happy Rainey was well deserved.

Rainey stopped at the exit to wait for Ernie to grab her purse and turn out the lights. She glanced up at the cottage. Her heart quickened just knowing she would see Katie in a few minutes, for what appeared to be an important dinner. She forced herself not to go home when Katie called earlier to say she was back. It was hard to concentrate on work when Rainey knew Katie was so close. Most days Katie came down to the office and helped Ernie with filing and things. Rainey discovered she liked having Katie at work with her. They even did a few stakeouts together. When she wasn’t around, Rainey counted the minutes until she would see her again. Ernie had every right to pick on Rainey. She was “love-struck.”

Rainey often wondered how long she was going to walk around in this state of perpetual bliss. It had to end. Rainey was a realist. It would be impossible to sustain this level of romance forever. In the future, the chemicals that surged during the beginning stages of a love affair would settle back to more reasonable levels. It was nature’s way of assuring procreation and then maturation. Rainey knew all the science of it, but never having experienced a love of this magnitude, she had been unable to predict how it would change her. After all those years of hiding emotions, Rainey was delighting in just letting go for once.