Sweet Dreams Boxed Set (110 page)

My time as county coroner, as well as the owner of Graves Funeral Home, didn’t always allow me to get a solid eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. Why was it that death always happened in the middle of the night? Fortunately, I was conditioned to function on little sleep and gallons of coffee from my time as an ER doctor. Of course, my ER days were back before my parents had driven their car over a cliff and changed my life forever.

I swayed and steadied myself on Jack’s arm. “I think there was something in the wedding vows that said you have to carry me if I’m unable to walk due to sexual bliss.” Our cabana was barely a speck in the distance, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it without falling on my face.

“I’m not sure whose wedding you attended, but I don’t think it was ours.” Jack smacked me on the behind and took my hand as we strolled toward our cabana.

My legs felt like lead, the sun was starting to get to me, and I needed a fruity drink with an umbrella in it in a bad way. I’ve never really been on vacation before, but I’ve discovered I’m pretty good at it. I kept my head down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, so I didn’t see the man standing on our front porch until we were almost right on top of him.

Chapter Two

Jack always noticed everything—part of the job description—so he nudged me as we got closer. “I told you we’d get caught doing it in that restroom at the restaurant last night,” he hissed. “That woman must’ve really had to go to the bathroom. She tattled on us.”

I looked up and noticed Joe Kingston at our door, his hand up in mid-knock. He was dressed in loose shorts and a Hawaiian shirt with big yellow flowers all over. It bagged over his hip holster, but the outline of his weapon was still visible. He wore a straw hat that was frayed around the edges and flip-flops.

Joe was the island cop, and in the tradition of things, cops had a sixth sense about other cops. So we weren’t on the island a full day before Joe had sought out Jack and made an introduction. And by saying Joe was the island cop, I meant he was the
only
island cop. I’d never been anywhere with a police force of one before.

Most of his time was spent dealing with petty thefts, domestic violence issues, and drunken tourists. He’d told us the first day there was never any serious crime because the locals knew how important the tourist industry was to the economy.

“I’m not taking the rap for that by myself,” I hissed back. “You could’ve said no.”

“Are you kidding me? You did my favorite thing. I’d have to be an idiot to say no.”

“Your favorite thing? I thought that thing we did this morning was your favorite thing.”

“It’s all starting to blur together. Listen, let me handle this. If Joe’s like any other cop he’ll give me a high-five and then we’ll have a beer.”

“What about me?”

“I’m sure he’ll give you a high-five too if you really want one.”

I elbowed Jack in the ribs, but couldn’t get the silly grin off my face long enough to be serious. But the closer I got to Joe the more I realized that whatever was bothering him was
very
serious. Jack must gotten the same impression because he let go of my hand and took the porch stairs two at a time.

“Hey, Joe. You okay?” They shook hands, but it was very obvious Joe wasn’t okay.

I hurried up beside Jack, automatically checking Joe’s color and wanting to grab his wrist and check his pulse. His skin wasn’t a good hue and he was clammy with sweat. And his eyes were dilated to the point they looked more demon than human.

“Why don’t you sit down,” I said. I didn’t give him a choice. I grabbed him, discretely checking his racing pulse, and led him to one of the white rocking chairs. “Jack, maybe some water?”

“No, no,” Joe said, pulling from my grasp. “There is no time. I came right away. You must both come with me.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose, but there was no other expression on his face. Jack was a hell of a poker player, and unless you knew him well it was impossible to know what he was thinking half the time. I knew him better than anyone, and I still hardly knew what he was thinking. But part of Jack’s job as a sheriff was to be a politician. He knew how to win people over, calm them down, and be compassionate when the time called for it. It’s what had made him such a great street cop and commander too. And it’s what made him an exceptional sheriff.

“The body is still very fresh. Still warm.” He nudged us both in the back to get us going and he headed back down the stairs.

“Wait a second,” I said. Things were starting to come into focus, but I needed a little more clarity just to be sure. “You’ve got a body you need us to look at? A dead body?”

“Yes, yes. Very dead. Very murdered. Things like that don’t happen here. We don’t know what to do. You are experts, so you come do it for us. Yes?”

I looked at Jack in question and I could see the resignation in his sigh. All we’d wanted—needed—was a break from our day-to-day lives and the horrors that often plagued us both.

“We’ll come,” Jack finally said. “Let us change clothes and you can take us to the scene.”

There was no escape from the dead.

Chapter Three

The island was only a couple of miles in either direction, and Joe maneuvered the bright yellow Jeep off the main road and down one of the cobbled narrow side streets. We sped between brightly colored houses, each connected to the next, and laundry lines hung from the balconies of the apartments overhead.

The streets were full of bike traffic and people going back and forth from the outdoor market, carrying baskets of fruit and other goods, but Joe just beeped the horn and kept speeding through the melee.

I hung onto the roll bar with one hand and Jack’s thigh with the other as we bumped along and watched people get out of our way at the last possible second. The engine was loud, so Joe had to yell to be heard.

“It’s been about an hour since it was reported,” he said. “The phone lines have been down on the island today and cell service isn’t the most reliable, so they had to come get me and bring me to the scene. And then I had to find you.”

I closed my eyes as our wheels drove up on the sidewalk and scattered a bunch of chickens. I wasn’t an overly religious person, but I started saying every prayer I could think of. The women in my family had a tendency to die young and tragically, and I was hoping to break that streak, though it didn’t feel like I was going to be successful at it. 

“Father Fernando found the body in the church courtyard between masses,” Joe continued. “I’ve never been a mainland cop, but I know enough to know the scene is not how you would like it. Mass is well attended and you can imagine everyone’s curiosity. And Father Fernando isn’t one to think that outside help is needed in matters like these, so he wasn’t exactly worried about preserving the scene.”

I winced, knowing we were already playing with a stacked deck. I didn’t have a useable lab or hardly any resources at hand that I’d normally take with me, so a contaminated crime scene and a reluctant priest were the least of our worries.

Jack pushed his sunglasses higher on the bridge of his nose. “No one noticed the body when the earlier Mass let out?”

“It wasn’t there before or directly after the three o’clock service.” Joe maneuvered a sharp turn and barely avoided hitting a flower cart. He beeped the horn and waved and didn’t look back. Apparently everyone was used to Joe’s driving. “The courtyard is located between the clergy house and the church, and parishioners use the front entrance of the church for the five o’clock Mass, so the courtyard area in back is always clear. Father Fernando and Father DeCosta were coming from their quarters to hear confession when they noticed the body. Father Barthe heard the commotion and came out to join them soon after.”

“Is the victim a local or a tourist?”

“A local. Leon Stein.”

I felt Jack relax beside me, and I knew where his sigh of relief was coming from. It was going to be a lot easier to deal with a local than a foreign tourist getting murdered while on vacation. There’d be less hoops to jump through for us if we were going to help and less, if any, media attention.

“No offense, but Stein doesn’t exactly sound local,” I said.

Joe smiled, his teeth starkly white against his dark skin. “Leon has been here more than seventy years, shortly after the Second World War. He says he came to the island for vacation and decided to stay the minute he laid eyes on a girl named Maria. She was fifteen at the time and they were married within a few weeks. It’s hard to find someone on this island not related to Leon and Maria. He would’ve celebrated his hundredth birthday next week. We were planning a big celebration.”

“Are you related to them?” Jack asked Joe.

Joe smiled again. “Oh, somewhere down the line a few times removed. It’s the way of things here. Maria will have heard the news by now. I need to go by and see her.”

“We’ll need to talk to her,” Jack said.

Joe sighed and his smile disappeared. “I know you will. She’s frail and not in the best of health. Be easy on her.”

“We can step back at any time. This isn’t exactly how we planned to spend our honeymoon.”

“No, this is the right thing to do. Besides, you’ve got the look of someone who could use a break from their honeymoon, if you know what I mean.” Joe covered his smile with a cough and I shot Jack a narrow-eyed stare.

“Whimp,” I whispered.

He turned his head so his lips touched my ear. “Baby, all those SWAT ops in my past had nothing on you.”

“You’re a sweet talker, Jack Lawson. I’ll give you a reprieve so we can solve this case. But after that you’d best watch out.”

“I have excellent hearing, so no need to whisper,” Joe said. “And you are a lucky man, Sheriff. Maybe she has a sister she could send my way. It would be nice to have some fresh blood on the island. You’d think in a place where women outnumber men two to one it would be easy to find a wife.”

“Wow, you’d think,” I said, surprised by the ratio.

“Jaye is an only child, thank God,” Jack said. “I’m not sure she’s the kind of fresh blood this island could handle. She’s a little rebellious.”

Joe tipped his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose and looked at me. “I could’ve guessed that. She’s got that look about her. The church teaches that a wife should be obedient.”

Jack looked at me with his brows raised and his eyes full of the devil. “Yeah,” he said. “Obedient.”

“I can see why he’s having trouble finding a wife despite the ratio,” I whispered out the side of my mouth. “Besides, there are times I like being obedient.” I waggled my eyebrows and smirked. “Can we do that thing with the zip ties again?”

“Ssh, woman. Stop giving away all my secrets.”

I grinned, despite the circumstance that had put me in a Jeep bouncing along rutted roads instead of bouncing on a mattress. A few days of marriage to Jack had done more for my soul and sanity than the lifetime I’d spent praying for relief from the constant shit storm that plagued anyone with the last name Graves.

“You don’t happen to have a spare medical bag or gloves with you,” I asked Joe.

“Medical bag, no. Doctor Hizumi is the only physician on the island and he’s on a house call. An American tourist spent too much time in the sun this morning.

“But I brought gloves, and I’ve got a few supplies in a box in the back. I wasn’t sure what might be needed. I sent my nephews to go and clear space for you to work at the police station. It’s not a large building, so unfortunately our makeshift morgue will be in the jail cell. And of course, Jack can use my desk for whatever he needs.”

I pursed my lips together to keep from saying anything I’d regret. I was on my honeymoon and I’d get to spend the foreseeable future in a jail cell with a dead body and no air conditioning. Jack gave me a comforting squeeze on the shoulder and I exhaled, releasing the tension from my body.

St. Miguel’s was small, but beautiful, and sat on a higher elevation looking out over the water. The architecture was decidedly Spanish—pale yellow stucco and ornately carved wooden doors. It was obviously well tended to, the grounds neatly mowed and the wild growth of tropical flowers in the flowerbeds maintained. To the left was a small cemetery, the headstones and crosses lined up like soldiers.

The stained glass windows gleamed in the late afternoon sunlight and a small fountain with a statue of the Virgin Mary sat between two of the cathedral style windows. A crowd had gathered in front of the church and they gossiped in hushed whispers.

Joe parked the Jeep in front of the church, and I noticed most people made the sign of the cross as they saw who was arriving. Joe received looks of relief from the crowd. The looks they gave me and Jack ranged from confusion to hostility. From what I’d observed during my three days on the island, it was a close-knit, hard working community. There wasn’t wealth here. Just what the tourists brought in. But the raw, natural beauty of the island was its own wealth with white sand beaches and greenish-blue water that was so clear you could see straight to the bottom of the ocean before it got too deep. 

I gave Jack a quick glance, but he was absorbed in the surroundings. I’d learned the thing about being involved with a cop was that he was
always
a cop. Those instincts didn’t take a vacation. His focus was on the crowd, cataloguing anyone who might look suspicious or who didn’t fit. Just because the country was different didn’t mean a killer’s mentality would be. They liked to watch for the most part. To see the reactions of police and witnesses alike.

I let Jack do his thing and hopped out of the Jeep, grateful to have my feet on solid ground. People immediately swarmed Joe, rapidly firing questions. The death of Leon Stein was obviously catastrophic to the community. He was loved and had built his legacy here. Had a wife and children here. But what made someone kill a man like Leon Stein just shy of his hundredth birthday? That’s what we had to find out.

I felt underdressed in the navy shorts and white linen top I’d put on, but I hadn’t exactly packed with a crime scene in mind. I figured I could bleach the shirt if I got blood on it and the shorts were dark enough to hide any stains. I’d learned to be practical when it came to dressing in my line of work. I hardly ever wore makeup and I’d been living in sunscreen and moisturizer for the past several days. My toes still had polish on them from the wedding and my hair had been trimmed and given some kind of rinse so the tropical humidity didn’t make it frizz. My hair had never frizzed. It was straight and black and swung just at my chin. But they assured me at the salon it was better to be safe that sorry. I’d pulled it back in a stubby ponytail at the back of my neck so it wasn’t hanging in my face.