Closer Than You Think (32 page)

He blinked. ‘Olives? Your grandmother’s cook canned her own olives, here in Ohio?’

Her forehead smoothed and she gave him an odd look. ‘Of course not. They bought them already canned.’ Voices drifted across the hall and Faith slipped from his grip again, hurrying back to where Tanaka and one of his techs huddled around the floor tiles in question.

Tanaka looked up when Deacon and Faith entered the small room. ‘This tile is loose. Just stay where you are. We’ll pull it up and see if there’s anything under here.’

The tech inserted a thin file in the seam between the tiles and raised one, immediately recoiling. He jumped to his feet, dropping the tile as he did so. ‘
Holy shit
.’

Faith’s strangled cry pierced Deacon’s ears as his own stomach turned inside out, bile bubbling up to burn his throat.
Oh God. Not again.

Looking up at them from below the floor were the remains of a human face.

Mt Carmel, Ohio, Tuesday 4 November, 7.15
A.M.

‘Update,’ Isenberg demanded as soon as she walked through the O’Bannions’ front door.

Deacon took a quick glace out the front door to be sure Faith was still all right. She was curled up in the passenger seat of his car, her eyes closed. He hoped she was getting some sleep. ‘We’ve only pulled up the floor in that one small room so far. We found three bodies, all female. All blondes who appear to have been in their twenties. None were buried in the earth. All were encased in Plexiglas coffins resting on the original dirt floor. We don’t know what we’ll find under the remaining floor tiles.’

‘God.’ Isenberg looked as worn as he felt. ‘What’s the connection to Corcoran?’

‘Her recollection of the number of steps down into the basement led us to check under the floor tiles,’ Deacon said. ‘Otherwise we may have thought this house had been used only to torture Arianna and Corinne.’

‘So if Corcoran was dead, you might never have looked for the bodies.’

Deacon’s stomach twisted again. ‘It’s very possible.’

‘Except that we found that women’s T-shirt, size small,’ Adam said. ‘Neither of the victims wears that size. Nor does Corcoran. Someone else was down there.’

‘Maybe his accomplice.’ Isenberg looked over her shoulder. ‘Did Corcoran see the body?’

‘Just the face of the first one,’ Deacon said. ‘She got sick. I got her out of there.’

Isenberg gave him an assessing look tinged with sympathy. ‘And you?’

Deacon grimaced. Watching the bodies recovered and knowing more could be right under his feet . . . It was way too close to the dozens of unmarked graves he’d uncovered on his last case in West Virginia for his liking. ‘I’m okay.’

‘Good enough. Do we still like Combs for this?’

Deacon rubbed the back of his neck. ‘It’s looking less likely.’

‘Whoever did the renovations spent a lot of time down there,’ Bishop said. ‘Weeks. Maybe months. Two of the bodies appear to be recently deceased. Combs could be involved.’

‘But the house was modified perhaps ten years ago,’ Tanaka said. ‘And Dr Corcoran only met Combs four years ago.’

‘But we know the same gun was used here and in Florida, so we need to figure out what role her ex-con plays in all this,’ Isenberg said.

Adam’s mouth curved, but it wasn’t a smile. ‘I wouldn’t use that term with her, Lynda,’ he said mockingly. ‘She’s pretty damn adamant that he’s not
her
ex-con.’

‘Adam, do you know something about Dr Corcoran that you’d like to share?’ Isenberg asked sharply. ‘Something that makes you suspect her more than the rest of us obviously do?’

Adam shook his head. ‘No.’

‘There is something else, though,’ Deacon said, shoving his anger at Adam aside. ‘She’s dreamed of this house since she was a child. She would go down the steps and count them.’

‘Which is how she knew there were two less than there were supposed to be,’ Isenberg said. ‘What happened to her in that basement?’

‘I don’t know, but when she first came down, she wouldn’t look behind her. When she finally did, she was shocked to see a wall. She said it hadn’t been there back then.’

‘She also said the ceilings were higher before,’ Tanaka said softly. ‘What trauma would make her remember such a detail, Agent Novak? She was just a child. Why would she even notice how high a ceiling reached?’

Deacon met Tanaka’s sympathetic gaze and realized the man had picked up on something he had not. Not until that moment, at least. Now understanding dawned and he couldn’t stop himself from looking at Faith, asleep in his car.

‘Oh God,’ he murmured. ‘She called it “that last day”. The day her mother died. She said she died in a car accident. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe Faith saw something that day when she came down the stairs. Something so traumatic that she hasn’t returned to the house in twenty-three years.’

Bishop sighed. ‘Something that made her look up at the ceiling. Dammit, Deacon. You could always check the death certificate for her mother’s cause of death, to see if was suicide.’

But Deacon was pretty certain it was.
Oh baby,
he thought sadly.
No wonder you hate this house.
But why hadn’t she just told him? Why keep it a secret?

‘It would have been a terrible day for her,’ Isenberg said, ‘but we need to focus on identifying the bodies that are down there.’

‘And on finding Corinne Longstreet,’ Adam said.

‘And the locksmith and the power tech,’ Deacon added, ‘who are also still missing.’

Bishop sighed again. ‘And on finding out who shot the bellman and Anthony Brown, the victim in the hotel room.’

‘Plus the three who died in Miami,’ Deacon said. ‘Someone has been actively trying to kill Faith Corcoran during the last month, but if the door and windows of this basement were covered up and hidden ten years ago, it’s almost impossible that Combs could have been involved back then. If he wasn’t involved then, how could he be involved now?’

‘I thought she said she saw him breaking into her apartment in Miami a few weeks ago,’ Isenberg said, frowning.

Deacon considered what Faith had told him. ‘She said that she couldn’t see him well enough to shoot him because she didn’t have her contacts in. She may not have seen his face, only that he was the same size as Combs. That it
was
Combs would have been the natural assumption.’

‘I still think we should get her uncle in for questioning ASAP,’ Adam said.

‘On that we can agree,’ Deacon said.

‘Who else should we be talking to?’ Isenberg asked. ‘Who else had access to this house? The lawn looks like it’s been recently mowed. Who does the maintenance?’

‘The historical society takes care of the outside,’ Deacon said. ‘They employ a gardener. We’ll talk to him this morning. But remember, he has to have access and knowledge of the contents of her grandmother’s will.’

‘Dammit,’ Isenberg muttered. ‘Check him out anyway.’

‘Bishop, can you take the gardener?’ Deacon asked, and she nodded. ‘Thanks. We need information on the bodies downstairs. The ME will take them as soon as you’re done, Vince.’

‘We’ll pull up the rest of the tiles,’ Tanaka said. ‘I estimate it will take us several hours.’

Deacon looked out the side window where the O’Bannion land spread as far as he could see. His stomach gave another vicious twist. Lots of land. Lots of space for bodies. ‘We need to make sure he didn’t bury any bodies outside.’

‘It’ll take us a good deal longer to do an adequate search there,’ Tanaka said.

‘Can you use ground-penetrating radar?’ Deacon asked. ‘I’ve had good results with it. I know someone who’s nationally known for GPR.’ He remembered the weeks he’d spent digging up bodies in West Virginia. ‘She should be able to recommend someone local.’

‘I’ll let you know if I need a name. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do.’

Isenberg looked over her shoulder at Faith, still sleeping in the car. ‘Corcoran can’t go back to her hotel. It’s a media circus. She’ll have to go to a safe house.’

‘Absolutely,’ Deacon said. ‘I’ll take care of it.’

Chapter Sixteen

Cincinnati, Ohio, Tuesday 4 November, 8.00
A.M.

F
aith woke with a start, then relaxed when she smelled the faint cedar that lingered on Novak’s skin. They were moving. She’d fallen asleep in the passenger seat while waiting in front of the house, so far gone that she hadn’t woken when he started the car and drove away.

‘I have to call my father when I get back to the hotel,’ she murmured. ‘I have to tell him what’s happening before he hears it on the news and starts to worry. Especially since I’m not answering either of my cell phones now.’

‘You can use mine to call him, if you’d like.’

‘What time is it?’ she asked, raising her seat upright. ‘He doesn’t usually wake up till after . . .’ She frowned, distracted by their surroundings. They were in the suburbs, not the city. ‘This isn’t the way to my hotel. Where are we going?’

‘Safe house.’ He looked at her from the corner of his eye. ‘You can’t stay in your hotel. Not after last night. Even if he doesn’t try for you again there, the media will swarm you.’

‘What about my stuff?’

‘Bishop should have moved it all by now, except for what’s in your safe.’

Her frown deepened. ‘I don’t like people touching my things.’

His mouth tightened. ‘I don’t like people shooting at you.’

She sighed, knowing she’d been churlish. ‘Thank you. For everything you’ve done for me.’

He let a beat of silence pass. ‘Everything?’ he asked softly.

She knew he meant that kiss in the kitchen, and for a moment she let herself remember being held in his arms. How good he’d felt . . . all over. ‘Yes, everything. But we can’t do that again.’

White brows lifted. ‘And why would that be?’

‘Because I’m still a witness, Deacon. You said yourself that it’s not ethical.’

‘I also said I changed my mind.’

‘About passing me to Bishop. Maybe you should do that, then you won’t get distracted.’

‘I’m not distracted.’

‘Yes, you are. You’re chauffeuring me again,’ she pointed out. ‘Don’t tell me that you don’t have anywhere else to be. You’ve got three active crime scenes.’

‘Five active crime scenes, actually. Yes, I am supposed to be somewhere else. I have an appointment with my brother’s principal in a few hours, so I’m killing two birds with one stone. I can get you settled while I shower and change my clothes.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Excuse me?’

‘I can’t meet my brother’s principal smelling like a crime scene. Although it might make the meeting shorter,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘That’s not a bad idea, actually.’

‘Don’t try to be cute, Deacon. Exactly whose safe house is this?’

‘Mine.’

She stared at him. ‘You’re taking me to your house? Isenberg approved this?’

‘Just until we set up something better, which should be later this morning. My place has a good security system. I installed it myself, so I know it works.’ He angled her a sly grin, waggling his eyebrows. ‘It also has a sixty-five-inch flat screen you can connect to your Xbox.’

She found herself chuckling. ‘You’re nervy, Novak. I’ll give you that. Who’s going to guard me while you’re off dealing with your delinquent brother?’

His smile dimmed and she wanted to kick herself for her phrasing. ‘I’ve requested two agents from the field office. You’ll be in good hands.’

Of that she had no doubt. He’d promised he wouldn’t let anything happen to her, and Deacon Novak seemed to be a man of his word. It was the loss of his smile that worried her.

‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have talked about your brother that way.’

‘No, you’re right. He’s well on his way to being a delinquent and I don’t know what to do.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said again, giving his forearm a light squeeze, feeling his muscles flex beneath her palm. And that fast, she wished they were back in her hotel room, kissing like there was no tomorrow. Touching him, even platonically, was dangerous.

She pulled her arm away, but he caught her hand. Threaded their fingers together and rested their joined hands on his powerful thigh. All the while he kept his eyes focused straight ahead.

‘Not yet,’ he murmured. ‘Don’t pull away yet.’

There was a vulnerability in his voice that she hadn’t heard before. It made him even more dangerous because she didn’t want to hurt him.

‘Do you change your mind with all your witnesses, Deacon?’ she asked, hoping he could hear that she was vulnerable too.

He released her hand as if she’d burned him. ‘You should try to get a little more sleep while I’m gone,’ he said tersely. ‘And should you experience any issues with what you saw, the department can recommend a counselor.’

She folded her hands in her lap, feeling bereft. And guilty, like she’d kicked his puppy or something. Unsettled, she lashed out. ‘With what I
saw
? Which thing, Deacon? Arianna lying in the road, a bellman gunned down in front of me, or the remains of that poor woman under the floor of my grandmother’s house? Which thing that I
saw
might give me “issues”?’

‘All of them,’ he said angrily. ‘All of them are going to give you nightmares. Not like you didn’t have enough already. And no, I’ve never changed my mind with any other witness.’

Her heart skittered. ‘Thank you for that,’ she said quietly, then attempted a smile. ‘But I’ll pass on the counselor, if you don’t mind. I’ve managed on my own this long. I’ll be all right.’

He didn’t smile with her. He didn’t even answer her. Instead, he turned on to a tree-lined street and hit a button above his head. Faith got only a glimpse of a large, two-story Tudor-style house before closing her eyes in a moment of startled panic when he gunned the engine and took a hard right into a driveway, heading for an open garage door. He braked hard, and when she opened her eyes, they were in the garage, the door beginning its descent.

He was out of the car before she caught her breath, looking menacing, furious even, as he helped her from her seat, but she wasn’t afraid. And when he hauled her into his arms, she wasn’t surprised. She was relieved, welcoming the feel of his arms tight around her, of his mouth hot and hard and demanding.

He needed her. Needed this. Which was good, because she needed it too.

‘You are
not
all right,’ he whispered fiercely against her lips. ‘And neither am I.’

‘Why aren’t you all right?’

He lifted his head, staring down at her in the darkness. ‘You have a serial killer after you and I don’t want to let you out of my sight. But I have to. I have to let someone else keep you safe while I stop him or you will never be safe again.’

Her heart skipped a beat. Then pounded so hard that the room spun.
Serial killer. In my grandmother’s house.
‘How many are there?’ she whispered. ‘How many bodies?’

‘Three in the first room. So far.’

‘Three? So far?’ An awful understanding descended, threatening to choke her. ‘It’s not Combs, is it?’
Someone
else
is trying to kill me
.

‘Not only him, anyway. Not unless he knew you before he was assigned to your program.’

‘No, he didn’t. Sergeant Tanaka said the torture room windows had been covered ten years ago. Whoever this is has been killing that long, hasn’t he?’

‘I don’t know, Faith. I truly don’t know. We’ll know more when the ME examines the bodies. Didn’t any of your family go out there, ever? In the last twenty-three years?’

‘My father went every few years on the anniversary of my mother’s death.’

‘In a car accident,’ he said carefully. ‘Even though it’s the basement that frightens you, the stairs you count. The height of the ceiling you remember.’

He knew. Of course he did. Of course he’d figured it out. On some level she’d known he would. She went silent, pressing her cheek into his chest as he stroked her hair so tenderly it made her want to cry.

‘Why won’t you tell me the truth, Faith?’ he whispered.

‘I can’t. Please don’t ask me.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because we were more Catholic than the Pope,’ she whispered bitterly and felt him sigh.

‘And suicide is a sin.’

‘Not just any sin. It’s the big sin.’

He kept on stroking her hair, holding her tight. ‘You saw her?’

She nodded, her throat too thick to speak. It was a nightmare she’d never, ever forget, but she couldn’t talk about it. Not to him. Not to anyone. Now or ever.

‘All right, honey,’ he murmured. ‘I won’t ask anymore. But I do need to know if your father noticed the change to the outside of the house – the windows being covered.’

‘He wouldn’t have noticed. The cemetery is on the other side of the house.’

‘He might have seen it from the road when he was driving up.’

‘He wouldn’t have noticed,’ she repeated firmly. ‘He didn’t know the house like I did. He didn’t come with us when we visited. He dropped us off and picked us up later.’ The only time she could remember him staying for more than an hour was in the days following her grandfather’s death. And her mother’s. ‘He and my grandmother didn’t get along too well.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because he left the priesthood to marry my mother,’ she said, and felt his jerk of surprise.

‘Okay,’ he said slowly. ‘I can honestly say I did not expect that answer.’

Faith sighed. ‘He was still in the seminary and hadn’t taken his vows yet, but Gran didn’t think that made a difference. So he didn’t know the house,’ she repeated, rubbing her cheek against Novak’s chest. He felt good. Hard. Solid. Safe. ‘You can’t ask him, Deacon. My dad is sick. He had a stroke last year. The worry of all this is going to kill him.’

He kissed the top of her head and made her heart melt all over again. ‘Then call him and tell him you’re safe. And then keep yourself out of harm’s way as best you can.’

‘So no going to work for me today,’ she said with a sigh, knowing he was right.

‘Y’think?’ he asked dryly, making her smile again.

‘I’ve also got to call my boss then. What am I allowed to say?’

‘That you were in a car accident last night and had some complications,’ he said blandly.

Faith almost laughed. ‘Complications?’

‘It’s not a lie.’

‘No, it’s not.’ Reluctantly she stepped out of his arms. ‘Lead the way to my safe house.’

He opened the door into the house and the smell of fresh paint made her sneeze. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m camping out here while I get the place ready for us to move in.’

‘Us?’

‘Dani and Greg and I.’

She stopped in the laundry room to look up at him warily. ‘You’re moving in with your sister and brother?’

‘More like they’re moving in with me. I bought this place last summer and started fixing it up when I moved back a month ago. Dani’s moving in at the end of the week. So is Greg. If he keeps himself out of juvie, that is.’

Her heart softened. ‘You moved back here for him, didn’t you?’

He nodded. ‘He’s been living with my aunt and uncle his whole life, but he’s gotten to be too much for them to control and my aunt’s health is fragile. Greg got thrown out of his last school and Dani couldn’t handle him alone so I decided to come home. I wanted a place in a good school system, big enough that we wouldn’t trip over each other. We lived in this same neighborhood after my mother married my stepfather, just a few streets over. I wanted to settle here, and this fixer-upper was all I could afford.’

‘That’s why Greg attends the school you and Dani attended before your mother and stepfather died,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Did both Dani and Greg go to live with your aunt and uncle afterward?’

He nodded once. ‘They let me finish out the year at our old school because I was a senior, but the school system made Dani change schools because my aunt and uncle live in a different district. It was hard on her, losing Mom and Bruce and her friends all at once. Greg’s had to change schools too, but only because he was thrown out of the last two.’ He shook his head a little. ‘Let me give you the nickel tour.’ He led her into the kitchen, flicking on the lights. ‘I finished this first. Figured we’d need to eat.’

Faith looked around, impressed. ‘You do good work.’ The cabinets were new, as were the appliances. And the flooring. She jerked her eyes up from the pretty tile, unwilling to think of the tile in her grandmother’s basement.

She found herself looking into his eyes, and her already warm cheeks started to burn. Along with the rest of her body. Because he was looking at her too. Like he was starving and she was food. Alarmed that she might have the same expression on her face, she took a giant step back, holding up her hand like a traffic cop. ‘This is crazy, Deacon. No.’

He flashed a grin that was both mocking and wicked, making him the sexiest man she’d ever seen. ‘All right,’ he said smoothly. ‘Let me show you where you’ll . . . sleep.’

Everything inside her clenched and she swallowed a groan, laughing instead. ‘You’re incorrigible, Agent Novak.’

‘I know,’ he said with satisfaction, making her laugh again.

‘You said you were camping out.’ She winced, thinking about all the places her body ached after wrecking her car and surviving a murder attempt. ‘Do I have to sleep on the floor?’

‘Hardly. I believe in creature comforts. Like a big-ass flat screen connected to my Xbox, which you can use,’ he said, pointing as he walked her through the living room. The television screen dominated the wall, but the rest of the room was bare, save two folding chairs. ‘Folding chairs is enough camping for me. Most of my furniture’s still in storage.’

He led her up a flight of stairs to an open, sunlit second floor. She glanced up, the skylights bringing a smile to her face. It was warm here, even though it was cold outside. He opened a door to a room that was empty except for her boxes and a few unopened paint cans.

‘Your stuff. This will be Dani’s when it’s done.’

She followed him down the hall, to the master bedroom. It held a king-sized bed with rumpled sheets, a beat-up chest of drawers and not much else in the way of furniture. Her suitcase sat next to the bed.