ANGEL'S KISS (A Dark Angel's Novel) (10 page)

The dense scrub that surrounded the Janecks’ neighborhood went by in a green blur as we headed into town. Every time I blinked I saw the naked torso with the ripped muscle and skin where the appendages should be. Of course, I’d recognized that the naked form on the floor was female, but now I understood how I knew it was Mrs. Janeck. The drive was giving me time to remember all the details.

Both times I met with her; she’d worn a thick, intricate gold necklace shaped like a lariat. I’d admired the originality of the design and even tried to describe it to Alan one night. The ends were tassels with rubies woven into the points of all the gold braids. The lariat held a huge engraved crystal surrounded by a border of shiny black stones. The necklace was distinctive and very old, if I had to guess. I’m positive it was that chain that had been placed in the shape of a bow on the woman’s torso. It was Mrs. Janeck who had been torn to pieces, I knew it. But the crystal had been gouged out. Why take the stone and leave the necklace?

“Miss Alexandria.”

I’d heard William, but I couldn’t tear my attention away from the vision.

“Miss Alexandria.” William’s voice sounded like he was calling me from a long tunnel. “Don’t make me call your grandmother.”

That threat brought me around laughing. “What would you tell her, William—that I’m as crazy as she is? Relax; I was just lost in thought for a moment.”

“I was worried, Miss,” William admitted. “I have been trying to get your attention for a couple of minutes.”

I realized then that he was in the back seat with me, holding my hand away from my forehead. Crap, I’d been scratching again.

“I was thinking about the murders,” I said shaking him off. “Not the most appealing image. Where are we?” I looked around and noticed the statue in front of the police station.

“Great, we’re here.” Turning back to William, I said, “Thanks for driving me, and...waking me up. Can you wait for me? I may need a ride.” It irritated me to ask. I hate not having my car.

“Of course, I will stay. I am in your service until your grandmother makes more permanent arrangements for your protection,” he said, releasing my hand, obviously satisfied now with my lucidness.

I stopped him as he reached for the door. “I don’t need your protection.” I took a deep breath before I switched topics. “Ah, William, what’s wrong with B? Delusions of immortal beings. You must know it’s not healthy to encourage her. Does she need medication? Has she seen a psychologist?”

He just gently took his hand and lifted my bangs to see the damage I’d caused scratching my forehead.

“Not much damage done, Miss. You’re already healing.” Then he raised his head and looked over my shoulder. “Your co-workers are exiting the station. Would you like me to catch them before they get to their cars?”

“Oh, I’ll get ‘em, thanks.” I opened the door and yelled at them. While they walked over, I said, “This conversation isn’t over, William. We’ve got to talk about B.”

He just nodded. “I’ll be waiting here for you, Miss.”

I met the guys on the sidewalk in front of Jolly’s Diner and thanked Mr. Watson for his help. He’s been our family and business attorney for as long as I could remember. I had a thought as he turned to leave.

“Mr. Watson, are you still working for my grandmother?”

“Yes, Miss
Alexandria
. I see you’re using her car today. Does she need me to call on her?”

“No,” I said, “just wondering.” If B really was crazy, I might need his help later to get her to a doctor. “Thanks again for springing Riley.”

“Just doing my job. Do not let the police strong-arm you. They have nothing in the way of evidence or leads. They’ll speculate and fish for confessions. Do not talk to them alone. Are we understood?”

“Thanks for your concern, Virgil.” His fatherly tone made me use his first name. “We’ll be on guard. I’ll call you if they want to question any of us again.”

“Good. Have a nice afternoon, Ottie, Miss. Now, Riley, don’t get into any more trouble today. You hear?”

Riley just nodded and said, “Thanks.” He looked haggard. I guess I’m not the only one who wishes they could erase those images from their mind.

Since none of us had had lunch, Ottie suggested we get something to eat. Food was not high on my list of desires, and from the look on Riley’s face, he wasn’t interested, either. But Ottie was insistent, so we all went into Jolly’s Diner.

The aroma was incredible. The smell of coffee and frying bacon, hamburger, and onion made my mouth water. Meat sizzled on the grill. The clattering of dishes being cleared from the lunch rush reminded me of how busy this little place usually was. On a normal day I would have been in greasy food heaven, but I just couldn’t get excited about eating, not with those images so fresh in my mind.

Riley and I picked at our burgers and fries, while Ottie devoured two double cheeseburgers, onion rings, and one of the milk shakes for which the diner is famous. Their shakes are served in those tall metal containers, and so thick you need to eat them with a spoon.

I noticed that Riley loosened up a little after his second Coke. I surveyed the sparse crowd and figured that this was as good a place as any to find out what he knew. He took a deep breath, put down his french fry, and wiped his hands with his napkin. He knew what was coming.

“Riley, can you tell us what happened?”

His green eyes fell to the table as he began. “I relieved Ottie at about three this morning. It seemed strange to both of us that there had been no action at the house since Mr. Janeck came back from his dinner the previous night. Well, you know—you saw him,” he said, nodding at me.

I nodded agreement.

“I sat and watched the house. Then around ten this morning I realized that the front door was cracked open.” He leaned forward, his voice pleading. “I swear I didn’t leave my post or fall asleep. No one could have gotten in or out the front door without my seeing them.”

“It’s okay, Riley. We were just watching to see if he’d leave or have a visitor. We weren’t on security detail. Hell, we didn’t even have surveillance on the back door.” Just then I had a thought. “Ottie, big house like that, all that jewelry she wore—did the Janecks have a security system?”

“I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter now, anyway. It’s a police investigation. We won’t get access to the files,” he said leaning back and rubbing his belly.

“You never know with
Devon
in our corner. All those computer geeks stick together. I’ll ask if he has a contact. I have to talk to him about my phone anyway.” My mind raced ahead. “Sorry, Riley, go ahead.”

“Well, after I noticed that the door was open, I went to check it out. I knocked on the door and yelled. When nobody answered, I went in. I should have called it in, I know. I was just curious, and it was so quiet. I had no idea that I would find… them.”

He swallowed hard as if to keep the Cokes from coming back up, then he sat up straighter. “You… did you guys see it?” His eyes were large and glassy, and he was shifting his head back and forth between Ottie and me like he was watching a tennis match.

“Yeah.” Ottie answered first, looking at Riley with obvious pity.

Then they both shifted their gaze to me, “I saw it, too. What happened after you found them? And how did the scene look when you found them?”

Riley described how he’d found the bodies. He hadn’t disturbed the scene. He’d been shocked, but he’d called Ottie and the police right away. He even kept his protein bar down until he got across the street, keeping the scene clean. That was it until the cops arrived.

We don’t train our employees to handle murder scenes. I was proud of him, and I let him know it.

After we paid the check, Ottie said that I could tag along with him back to the office, since that’s where my car was anyway. So I asked William to take Riley home. William wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t raise too much of a fuss in front of the others. I couldn’t care less about his issues or B’s. The drive with Ottie would give us time to talk about this case, and that’s what was important right now.

The moment he turned the key in the ignition I was talking. “Ottie, what did you make of the necklace? You noticed it was placed in the shape of a bow over her heart?”

“Yeah, I noticed.” He ran his fingers through his hair, a tell-tail sign that he was stressed. “What a whack job. I’m sure it was some sort of message. Hell, who knows and who cares? Leave it for the police. No one’s paying us to work this case anymore. We’re out.” His eye brows rose slightly as if he was asking instead of telling.

“Ottie, how long have you known me?” I didn’t let him answer my question before I barreled ahead. “Two people were murdered while we were watching the house! And you’re hoping we can get out of being involved. We’re already involved up to our eyeballs!”

“Alllrrrright. I know. But Lexie, this’ll be bad. I can feel it.” He took a moment to stare at the road. “And if I could get us out now, I had to try.”

“Well, now that that’s decided, tell me what you think.” I leaned back and tried to relax against the ancient truck’s faded upholstery. No one would ever guess that the guts under this old Ford frame were probably worth more than a brand new Dodge Dually.

When he didn’t reply, I turned to gaze at him. The weather was finally cooler today, so he wore an old, worn plaid shirt and jeans. He liked to look sloppy and unorganized, but as with his truck, what you see is not always what you get. Ottie is precision and order rolled up in a huge package. I knew he’d been in the military, but he’ll never give me any details.

He kept his eyes on the road, and I could tell he was thinking, so I let the silence spread around us like a mist.

“Lexie, this is personal to whoever did it. The pieces were placed after death for a reason. Whether we’ll ever find out what it means…who knows.”

He took a deep breath. “There’s no blood at the scene. Hell, we don’t even know where they were killed. They were torn apart; I’m not even sure how that was done. Was there more than one killer? Was some sort of machine used? Shit, I didn’t even see any traces of blood to track back to how they were brought into the house. My guess would be the back door, but it was still locked from the inside. Plus, why leave the front door cracked open?”

I tried to stay detached and objective. “Did you see Mrs. Janeck’s head? I don’t remember seeing it.” There. I got that out just like a normal sentence. Bully for me.

He shook his head. “Nah, and I don’t think the police have made positive IDs, either. What makes you sure it’s her?”

“The necklace. She wore it to both of our meetings.”

I had secretly obsessed over that appealing and beautiful necklace both times. The gold almost seemed to glow, and the rubies woven into the ends were such a deep red that they were almost a garnet color. While poor Mrs. Janeck was pouring her heart out about her young husband and his possible infidelities, all I wanted to do was touch that necklace.

“It wasn’t something you forget. You know how much I like antiques, and it was old. Either she’s involved and placed the necklace there to make us think it’s her body. Or someone killed her and just took the stone, leaving the chain as a message.” I sat up straighter.

“Ottie, that stone was the size of a
Georgia
peach; I never could make out what was engraved on it. It couldn’t have been a diamond?” No way, I thought. “It was huge. If it was real, I can’t even imagine how much something like that would be worth or where it could have come from.”

“I never got a good look at it,” he said with a shrug.

“Really? How could you have missed it?” Ottie was extremely observant; I couldn’t believe he could overlook something like that.

“I only met her once and I just assumed she was eccentric—you know big hats, big jewelry, blah blah, blah, lots of money. I never gave her much thought.”

We were pulling up to the office and I saw my pink Jeep parked a few spots away. I love that car. It looked different, shiny. “Ottie, did you have my car washed for me?”

“Yeah, it was a mess. How do you drive in that thing with trash all over the floor?” He was obviously upset by my lack of cleanliness.

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad. I keep a trash bag tied to the shift to clean up cups and stuff. You know, we aren’t all obsessive compulsive about cleaning. Did you find anything?” Bickering with him felt good. I needed to get back to normal, and our teasing helped.

“Nope, nada. Try and keep it clean now, okay?”

It was after five when we walked into the office, but Kim was still at the front desk.

“Hey, Kim.” I tried to sound upbeat. Ottie didn’t stop to chat, but headed on down the hall to his office.

“Ottie!” Kim yelled. “Your messages are on your desk.” She turned her attention back to me.

“Hey, Lexie, how are you feeling?” The concern in her voice was evident as she put my new phone and messages on the reception counter.

“I’ll make it. Hey, thanks for getting me a phone.” I love gadgets, and this phone was shiny and new. She’d even added a pink camo case.

“It’s all set up with your numbers and programmed for email, just like the old one, so you shouldn’t have any trouble using it. Now, I’m heading home in a minute. Do you need anything before I go?”