A Faint Cold Fear (3 page)

Jeffrey was watching her closely, as if he could read her mind. He asked Sara, 'You still think he jumped?'

Sara left it open, saying, 'It looks that way, doesn't it?'

Jeffrey waited a beat before deciding. 'We'll canvass the area.'

Chuck started to volunteer help, but Jeffrey smoothly cut him off, asking, 'Chuck, can you stay here with Matt and get a picture of his face? I want to show it to the woman who found the body.'

'Uh…" Chuck seemed to be trying to think of an excuse, not because he did not want to stick around but because he did not want to take an order from Jeffrey.

Jeffrey motioned to Matt, who had finally turned back around. 'Get some pictures.'

Matt gave a stiff nod, and Sara wondered how he would take pictures without looking at the victim.

Chuck, on the other hand, could not look away. He had probably never seen a dead body before. Knowing what kind of person he was, Sara was not surprised by Chuck's reaction. He could have been watching a movie for all the emotion he showed in his face.

'Here,' Jeffrey said, helping Sara stand.

'I've already called Carlos,' Sara told him, meaning her assistant at the morgue. 'He should be here soon.

We'll know more from the autopsy.'

'Good,' Jeffrey said. He told Matt, 'Try to get a good one of his face. When Frank gets down here, tell him to meet me by the cars.'

Matt gave him a salute, still not saying much.

Sara tucked her stethoscope into her pocket as they walked along the riverbed. She glanced up at the car, looking for Tessa. The sun struck the windshield at an angle, turning the glass into a bright mirror.

Jeffrey waited until they were out of Chuck's earshot before asking, 'What aren't you saying?'

Sara paused, not knowing how to articulate her feelings.

'Something about this doesn't feel right.'

'That could be because of Chuck.'

'No,' she told him. 'Chuck's a jerk. I've known that for thirty years.'

Jeffrey allowed a smile. 'Then what is it?'

Sara turned around to look at the boy on the ground, then back up at the bridge. 'The scrape on his back. Why would he have that?'

Jeffrey suggested, 'From the railing on the bridge?'

'How? The railing isn't that high. He probably sat on it and swung his feet over.'

'There's a ledge under the railing,' Jeffrey pointed out. 'He could have scraped it on the way down.'

Sara kept staring at the bridge, trying to imagine the right scenario. 'I know it sounds stupid, but if it was me, I wouldn't want to hit myself on the way down. I would stand on the railing and jump out, away from the ledge. Away from everything.'

'Maybe he climbed down to the ledge and scraped his back on part of the bridge.'

'Check it for skin,' Sara suggested, though for some reason she doubted they would find anything.

'What about landing on his feet?'

'It's not as unusual as you think.'

'You think he did that on purpose?'

'Jumped?'

'The thing.' Jeffrey indicated his lower half.

'The piercing?' Sara asked. 'He's probably had it for a while. It's well healed.'

Jeffrey winced. 'Why would somebody do that to himself?'

'Supposedly it heightens sexual sensation.'

Jeffrey was skeptical. 'For the man?'

'And the woman,' Sara told him, though the thought of it made her shudder.

She looked toward the car again, hoping to see Tessa. Sara had a clear view of the parking pad. Except for Brad Stephens and the witness, no one else was in sight.

Jeffrey asked, 'Where's Tessa?'

'Who knows?' Sara answered, irritated. She should have taken Tessa home instead of letting her tag along.

'Brad,' Jeffrey called to the patrolman as they walked up to the cars. 'Did Tessa come back down the hill?'

'No, sir,' he answered.

Sara looked in the backseat of her car, expecting to see Tessa curled up for a nap. The car was empty.

Jeffrey asked, 'Sara?'

'It's okay,' Sara told him, thinking Tessa had probably started down the hill then had to go back up again. The baby had been tap-dancing on her bladder the last few weeks.

Jeffrey offered, 'You want me to go look for her?'

'She's probably just sitting down somewhere, taking a break.'

'You sure?' Jeffrey asked.

She waved him off, following the same path Tessa had walked up the hill. Students from the college jogged the trails in the woods, which led from one side of the town to the other. If Sara went east a mile or so, she would eventually run into the children's clinic. West would take her to the highway, and north would dump her out on the opposite side of town, close to the Linton house. If Tessa had decided to walk home without letting anyone know, Sara was going to kill her.

The grade was steeper than Sara had imagined, and she stopped at the top of the hill to catch her breath.

Trash littered the area, beer cans scattered like dead leaves. She looked back down at the parking pad, where Jeffrey was interviewing the woman who had found the body. Brad Stephens waved, and Sara waved back, thinking that if she was winded from the climb, Tessa must have been panting by now. Maybe Tessa had stopped to catch her breath before going back down. Maybe she had come across a wild animal.

Maybe she had gone into labor. On this last thought, Sara turned back to the trees, following a worn trail into the woods. A few feet inside, she scanned the immediate area, looking for any sign of her sister.

'Tess?' Sara called, trying not to let herself get angry.

Tessa had probably wondered off and lost track of the time. She had stopped wearing her watch a few months ago when her wrists had gotten too swollen for the metal band.

Sara walked deeper into the woods, raising her voice as she repeated, 'Tessa?'

Despite the sunny day, the forest was dark, the limbs from the tall trees linking together like fingers in a child's game, blocking out most of the light. Still Sara shielded her eyes, as if that would help her see better.

'Tess?' she tried again, then waited to the count of twenty.

There was no answer.

A breeze stirred the leaves overhead, and Sara felt a disconcerting prickling on the back of her neck.

Rubbing her bare arms, she took a few more steps down the trail. After about fifteen feet, the path forked.

Sara tried to decide which way to go. Both trails looked well traveled, and she could see overlays of tennis-shoe prints in the dirt. Sara was kneeling, trying to make out the flat tread of Tessa's sandals among the ribbed and zigzagged treads, when a sound came from behind her.

She jumped, saying, 'Tess?' but it was only a raccoon who was just as startled to see Sara as she was to see him. They stared at each other for a few beats before the raccoon scampered off into the forest.

Sara stood, clapping the dirt off her hands. She started down the trail to the right, then backtracked to the fork, drawing a simple arrow in the dirt with the heel of her shoe to indicate which direction she had taken. As soon as she made the mark, Sara felt silly, but she could laugh about the precaution later, when she was driving Tessa home.

'Tess?' Sara said, breaking off a twig from a low-hanging branch as she walked down the trail. 'Tess?' she called again, then stopped, waiting, but there was still no answer.

Ahead Sara could see that the path took a slight turn, then forked again. She debated whether or not to get Jeffrey to help but decided against it. Part of her felt foolish for considering it, but another, deeper part of her could not quell her fear.

Sara moved forward, calling Tessa's name as she walked. At the next fork, she shielded her eyes with her hand again, looking both ways. The trails gradually curved away from each other, the one on the right making a sharp turn about eighty feet ahead. The forest was darker here, and Sara had to strain her eyes to see.

She started to draw a mark toward the left trail, but something flashed in her mind, as if her eyes had taken their time relaying an image to her brain. Sara scanned the trail on the right, seeing an oddly shaped rock just before the sharp bend. She took a few steps forward, then ran, realizing that the rock was actually one of Tessa's sandals.

'Tessa!' Sara yelled, snatching the shoe from the ground, holding it to her chest as she spun around, frantically searching for her sister. Sara dropped the sandal, feeling a wave of dizziness. Her throat constricted as the dread she had been suppressing all along flowered into full-blown terror. In a clearing ahead, Tessa lay on her back, one hand to her stomach, the other out to the side. Her head was turned awkwardly, her lips slightly parted, her eyes closed.

'No-' Sara exhaled, running toward her sister. The distance between them could not have been more than twenty feet, but it felt like miles. A million possibilities went through Sara's mind as she raced toward Tessa, but none of them prepared her for what she found.

'Oh, God,' Sara gasped, her knees buckling as she sank to the ground. 'Oh, no…'

Tessa had been stabbed at least twice in the stomach and once in the chest. Blood was everywhere, turning the dark purple of her dress into a deep, wet black.

Sara looked at her sister's face. Her scalp had been ripped open, part of it hanging into her left eye, the bright red on the underside of the flesh a stark contrast to her pale white skin.

Sara cried, 'No… Tess… no… I' putting her hand to Tessa's cheek, trying to make her open her eyes. 'Tessie?' she said. 'Oh, God, what happened?'

Tessa did not respond. She was slack and unresisting as Sara pressed her torn scalp into place and forced open Tessa's eyelids, trying to see the pupils.

Sara tried to check for a carotid pulse, but her hand was shaking so much all she managed to do was smear blood in a macabre finger painting on Tessa's neck.

She pressed her ear to Tessa's chest, the wet dress sticking to her cheek as she tried to find signs of life.

Listening, Sara looked down at the stomach, at the baby. Blood and amniotic fluid oozed from the lower incisions like a dribbling faucet. A piece of intestine pushed out through a wide tear in the purple jumper, and Sara closed her eyes to the sight, holding her breath until she heard the faint beat of Tessa's heart and felt the almost imperceptible rise and fall of Tessa's chest as she took breath into her lungs.

'Tess?' Sara asked, sitting up, wiping blood from her face with the back of her arm. 'Tessie, please wake up.'

Someone stepped on a twig behind Sara, and she turned at the loud snap, her heart in her throat. Brad Stephens stood there, his mouth open in shock. They stared at each other, both speechless for several seconds.

'Dr. Linton?' he finally asked, his voice small in the large clearing. He had the same startled expression as the raccoon back up the trail.

Sara could do nothing more than stare at him. In her mind she was yelling at him to go get Jeffrey, to do something, but in reality the words would not come out.

'I'll get help,' he said, his shoes clomping on the ground as he turned and ran back up the trail.

Sara watched Brad until he disappeared around the bend before she let herself look back at Tessa. This was not happening. They were both trapped in some horrible nightmare, and soon Sara would wake up and it would be over. This was not Tessa not her baby sister who had insisted on tagging along like she used to when they were little. Tessa had just gone for a walk, gone to find a place to relieve her bladder. She wasn't lying here on the ground bleeding out while Sara could think of nothing to do but hold her hand and cry.

'It's going to be okay,' she told her sister, reaching over to take Tessa's other hand. She felt something sticking between their skin, and when she looked in Tessa's right hand, there was a piece of white plastic stuck to her palm.

'What's this?' she asked. Tessa's fist clenched, and she groaned.

'Tessa?' Sara said, forgetting the plastic. 'Tessa, look at me.'

Her eyelids fluttered but did not open.

'Tess?' Sara said. 'Tess, stay with me. Look at me.'

Slowly Tessa opened her eyes and breathed, 'Sara…' before her eyelids started to flutter closed.

'Tessa, don't close your eyes!' Sara ordered, squeezing Tessa's hand, asking, 'Can you feel that?

Talk to me. Can you feel me squeezing your hand?'

Tessa nodded, her eyes opening wide as if she had just been startled out of a deep sleep.

'Can you breathe okay?' Sara asked, aware of the shrill panic in her voice. She tried to take the edge off, knowing she was only making things worse. 'Are you having trouble breathing?'

Tessa mouthed a no, her lips trembling from the effort.

'Tess?' Sara said. 'Where's the pain? Where does it hurt most?'

Tessa did not answer. Hesitantly her hand moved up to her head, fingers hovering over the torn scalp.

Her voice was barely more than a whisper when she asked, 'What happened?'

'I don't know,' Sara told her, not sure of anything but the need to keep Tessa awake.

Tessa's fingers found her scalp, the skin moving underneath until Sara took her hand away. Tessa said, 'What…?' her voice trailing off with the word.

There was a large rock near her head, blood and hair scraped onto the surface of the stone. 'Did you hit your head when you fell?' Sara asked, thinking she must have. 'Is that what you did?'

'I don't…'

'Did someone stab you, Tess?' Sara asked. 'Do you remember what happened?'

Tessa's face contorted with fear as her hand reached down to her stomach.

'No,' Sara said, taking Tessa's hand, stopping her from feeling the damage.

More branches snapped as Jeffrey ran toward them.

He dropped down to his knees opposite Sara, demanding, 'What happened?'

At the sight of him, Sara burst into tears.

'Sara?' he asked, but she was crying too hard to answer. 'Sara,' Jeffrey repeated. He grabbed her by the shoulders, ordering, 'Sara, focus. Did you see who did this?'

She looked around, just now realizing that the person who stabbed Tessa might still be here.

'Sara?'

She shook her head. 'I don't… I didn't…'