Grave Echoes: A Kate Waters Mystery (5 page)

“Alternative possibilities?” Kate repeated.

“Those other than errors of the victim.”

Kate knew what he was saying, that Jev’s accident was the result of her faulty driving, but alternative possibilities introduced even more harrowing thoughts.

Wells pulled a pad and pen from his briefcase, readying himself to take their statements. “When was the last time you talked with your sister, Kate?”

“About a week ago,” she replied. “But, yesterday, I left her two messages. She didn’t return any of them.”

“Is that unusual for her?”

“Well, we usually talk a few times a week, but occasionally she falls off the radar, I guess.”

“Do you remember anything negative or unusual last time you spoke with her?”

“No.” Kate tried not to think about her hallucinations. That was all they were.

“How about you Jack?” Wells shifted towards him, adjusting the shiny, silver buckle at his waist.

“I talked with her last week also. She seemed fine.”

Wells jotted something down and then turned to Kate. “Does she have a boyfriend?”

“Yes, I work with him, but…,” Kate stopped. A troubling thought swelled in her mind. Sean said something had been bothering Jev. They had had a fight and he couldn’t reach her either.

“But what?”

His stare brought warm blood to Kate’s cheeks and the room suddenly felt hot and stuffy. “Sean hadn’t been able to get a hold of her either.”

“She was avoiding him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Were they fighting?”

“They had a fight.” Wells made another note in his book. Kate didn’t like the direction the conversation was heading and wasn’t prepared for this type of questioning, especially in her grief-stricken, sleep-deprived state. Sean and Jev had fought, but she knew under the current circumstances, it appeared more serious to the detective than what it really was.

“What does that have to do with her accident?” Jack asked.

“I’d like to hear anything you have to say, even if it doesn’t seem related.” Wells seemed to eye them intently. “You have a number or address where I can reach Sean?”

“I could give you our work number.” Kate handed Wells a piece of paper with the PNGS number on it.

“What is it you and Sean do for a living?” he asked, looking at the number.

“We’re geologists at the Pacific Northwest Geological Survey.”

“Oh.” Wells perked up. “Are you covering the activity at Mt. Hood?”

“Yes.”

“You think it’s going to blow?”

Kate wasn’t at all interested in talking about the mountain. Her sister just died, and she was struggling to make sense of it and the events before her accident. Life as she knew it had come to a screeching halt and no disaster, natural or not, could avert her attention.

She nodded anyway. “Yes, it will blow detective.” His eyebrows arched high. “But probably not anytime soon.”

“That’s encouraging,” he replied.

Maybe sensing Kate’s lack of enthusiasm, Wells ended his questioning. “Thanks for your help. If we have any more questions, we’ll contact you.” He stood and retrieved the box he’d brought in and set it down on the coffee table in front of everyone. The mystery of its contents made Kate anxious and though she was afraid to look inside the box, she felt her arms twitch at the desire to unfold the flaps.

“Are those her belongings?” Jack asked, his voice smoother now.

“Yes,” Wells replied. “There are still a few things from her car we are holding for examination, but they will be returned to you as soon as the reports are final. Again, I am deeply sorry for your loss.” Wells scooted the box to the middle of the table so everyone could have a look inside. He took a step back and turned his attention to his pager.

Kate stared at the box. Touching Jev’s personal things seemed like an invasion, even though she wanted to immerse herself in her sister’s life before the essence of her faded.

With a deep breath, she leaned toward the box and opened the flaps. Her dad shifted closer. Inside were stacks of books, CDs, notebooks, her purse, and a large Ziploc bag containing smaller items. While Jack and Louise browsed through the books and CDs, Kate picked up the plastic bag, shifting the small junk items in her hands: Chap Stick, gum, barrettes, pens, hard candy, and a pair of sunglasses.

Then she reached for Jev’s black, leather purse. Inside, she found Jev’s key chain, wallet, lotion, and a box of mints, but something hard at the bottom hid in the folds of the cloth. She opened the purse wider and noticed a rip at the corner. Kate used her fingers to gather the material and pull the object out. It seemed as if Jev had put it in there on purpose and so Kate remained discreet in retrieving it as the others looked through the box.

The detective still checked his pager. She held the object between her fingers inside the purse—it was a key…identical to the one she had seen in her hallucinations.

The blue walls of the hospital room seemed to brighten with a cold glare as Kate sat next to her dad and David, stunned by what she’d found in Jev’s purse—the key from her hallucinations. David excused himself to the restroom, giving Kate a chance to look closer at the key while her dad and Louise continued looking through the box of Jev’s belongings that Detective Wells had brought in.

The key was long and brassy, just like in her hallucinations, with a Celtic knot design spiraled at the base. Under the bright florescent lights of the room, she could now read the inscription along the stem, T.C.C. Almost repulsed, she dropped the key back in the purse. Uneasiness crept over her, as if something unnatural had touched her. But how could that be? How could Jev have had a key exactly like the one from her hallucinations, Kate questioned. She must have seen the key before. But if she had, wouldn’t she have remembered that after her first hallucination of it?

“Is there something wrong?” Wells asked.

“What?” Kate heard him, but she was buying herself time to process the situation and come to some sort of sensible conclusion to the parallels between her visions and Jev’s accident. She couldn’t tell the detective about the coincidences—she didn’t even know how to explain them herself.

“Are you alright? Is there something missing?”

Kate looked back in the purse. Actually, there was something missing. “I don’t see her cell phone. She always carries her cell phone.”

“Is that one of the items you’re holding for examination?” Jack asked.

“Jev’s cell phone. It’s not here.”

“We might have held it to reach people she knew,” Wells said. He flipped a couple of pages back in his notebook. “But I don’t…actually, we never recovered her cell phone. Maybe she left it at her house?”

“That’s probably where it is,” Kate said. David returned from the restroom and sat next to Kate.

Wells closed his notebook and folded his hands. “Since Jev’s driver’s license was damaged, we’ll need someone to identify the body.” He looked to all four of them.

The body. Did he have to say it like that, Kate thought? She turned to her dad. “I’ll do it.”

“I’m the father. I should do it.”

David stood. “We’ll all go. If you don’t mind, Detective Wells?”

“Certainly,” he replied. Then he grabbed his briefcase, hat, and coat and held the door open for them. Jack picked up the box of Jev’s belongings and Kate held onto her purse. Sometime today, they would be heading over to Jev’s house and she guessed she would find her cell phone and discover what the key opened there. Whether she had seen the key before or not, its presence with Jev made it significant now because it unlocked another part of her life, one that Kate would never get to discuss with her again.

The four of them walked behind Wells, first Jack and Louise, and then Kate and David a slight distance back. As they headed to the morgue, Kate thought they resembled zombies—arms and legs flaccid, eyes glazed, expressionless stares suggestive of trapped souls that moaned in some purgatory plane. At least it was how she felt—vacant.

A young man came towards them pushing a gurney, a white sheet draped over a body, the head, chest, and feet still detectable humps beneath the sheet. By the way he handled the cart, Kate could tell he was experienced with death, probably an everyday reality for him. He had blond, spiky hair, well-defined facial bones that were broad like a horse, and a small patch of hair beneath his bottom lip. He smiled and tipped his head toward Louise. Walking behind her, Kate couldn’t see her reaction, but she imagined Louise had a blushing smile. When Kate passed the man, he stared into her boldly, as if he could tell she were not new to death either. A badge on the left side of his shirt read Kinsley and Sons, a funeral home, which Kate made a mental note of, thinking he would probably be transporting Jev too.

Averting her eyes from his, Kate concentrated on the signs in the hallway, steering them to the bowels of the hospital. Wells rounded another corner and then stopped at the first door on the right. A sign attached to the side of it read Autopsy B.

“I just want to prepare you for what you’re going to see,” Wells stated, folding his hands together. His face looked flushed, and to Kate, he almost appeared nervous. “There won’t be any gore,” he continued, “but she will look very pale, almost blue, and might have a slightly different overall appearance. Death tends to contort facial expressions in subtle ways that can sometimes lead to unfamiliarity. She will be covered, so all you will see is her face.” He paused, perhaps giving them time to collect their strength. “Are you ready?”

Kate would never be ready, but she nodded her head anyways along with her dad. Through the little window in the door, she could see metal lockers broken down into three feet by two feet squares with a handle at the bottom seam. Inside, cold, hard, steel slabs lay bare, waiting for the bodies of mothers, fathers, children, and sisters. Before she could turn around and run in the other direction, far away from the hell she was about to enter, Wells unlatched the door and opened it for them to enter.

David grasped Kate’s hand and tugged gently, leading her into the room. “You can do this,” he said. She wanted to believe him and took a step. Then another.

Jack and Louise followed behind them. Everyone but Wells stopped in the middle of the room, just before the row of metal tables. The sickening smell of alcohol and bleach turned Kate’s stomach. Wells walked in front of them and then over to a bin that was partly open. He pulled on the handle and a metal gurney rolled out with a long, black plastic bag lying on top. Kate felt her stomach drop. David tugged on her again, but her shoes seemed glued to the checkered, green tile floor.

Jack came up behind Kate. “You don’t have to do this,” he whispered to her.

“Yes…I do.” She let go of David’s hand. It wasn’t just a matter of needing to view Jev’s body to confirm her death and provide verification that it was her sister, Jevanna Waters, lying there on the table—she had to see her sister one last time.

Jack and Louise walked to the other side of the gurney across from Kate and David. Wells seemed to wait for some kind of signal until they were ready and when Jack nodded at him, he proceeded to unzip the bag. The teeth of the zipper vibrated, echoing like machinery through the quiet, sterilized room.

Kate held her breath. First, Jev’s nose appeared, pale like a ceramic doll. Then Wells unsheathed the folds of the bag, pulling them aside and revealing the rest of her face.

With instant recognition, Kate identified the girl in the bag as her sister, Jev. Jack brought his fist up to his mouth to hide his shuddering lip, and Kate knew he saw his daughter. Louise buried her head into his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around her, hugging her tight. They held each other in the face of death. Kate didn’t want to be held and somehow David sensed it. The sight of her sister, blue and motionless, instilled a need to be alone. The dark oblivion threatening to swallow her earlier receded, but she knew it would be back.

There was something strange about a dead person, she reflected, staring down at Jev. Serenity, uninvited and shaming, invaded her thoughts as her mind faltered to assimilate the reality of death, its grotesque and alien transformation of those who were well known, well loved. No tears threatened to escape Kate’s eyes, no lumps coiled in her throat, only complete transfixion. Jev’s eyes and mouth were closed and dark curls fell around her face and the sides of her neck. She looked angelic and peaceful, despite the cuts and scrapes around her brow and cheek. Her lips were the color of lavender and her eyebrows arched like crescent moons.

Afraid to look closer and discover the fatal wounds that had sucked the life from her, Kate shifted her gaze back to Jev’s eyes. They used to dazzle like sapphire jewels compared to her own brown eyes, which her mother used to tell her shielded the world like a leather glove. Wanting to see her sister’s eyes one more time, Kate thought of lifting Jev’s lids, but she knew they wouldn’t hold the magic of her. Instead, it would be some horrid stare, like the undead or some android that had taken over her body. Kate wondered how death was any different. She didn’t believe in an afterlife or a God that carried good people away into a great kingdom across the universe where they would be reunited. Yet, staring down at the still form of her sister, she did believe in monsters, body snatchers that consumed people’s bodies and excavated their soul from its home. The body lying on the table in front of her was Jev and at the same time, it wasn’t.

“C’mon,” David said to Kate, placing his hand on her shoulder.

She knew she couldn’t stand there forever, but this would be the last time she would ever see her sister again. “Can I touch her?”

“Yes,” Wells said.

Kate ran her fingers along Jev’s brow. The coldness of her skin shocked her and Kate knew then it wasn’t Jev, not anymore. She drew her hand away and thanked Wells. As they walked away, she could hear him zip up the bag and roll the slab back into the metal tomb—along with her heart.

The four of them left the building. What had started out as initial concern for her sister’s whereabouts had turned into the worst possible scenario. Kate backtracked in her mind to the last time she saw Jev, when she’d come over to her house to help her pack for the move. She’d seemed fine then, Kate thought…but wasn’t there something she’d said, something about Sean? It jogged her memory, but like an evanescent dream, she couldn’t remember the context of Jev’s comment. In retrospection, her hallucinations, combined with Jev’s disappearance, her fight with Sean, and now her death, Kate had a strong gut feeling something had been wrong with her sister.

***

Jev lived in an early 1900s neighborhood, which had recently become a promising economic investment in southeast Portland. Beautiful large homes, though lined with junk cars and lawns that hadn’t seen enough water or fertilizer, awaited a generation eager to revive their potential. Seven years ago, the sketchy neighborhood was all Jev could afford, but the historical location proved to be a wise venture. Many of the homeowners began landscaping and remodeling the large cottage, Manchester and Victorian homes, refurnishing them with cedar shingles and box-frame windows. Jev followed suit and repainted her bungalow moss green with a sand-colored trim, installed new windows, and planted an herb and flower garden in both the front and back yards. Kate imagined if they chose to sell the house, it would pay off more than both her and her sister’s debt.

On the drive over, she called Stewart as David navigated the narrow streets.

“I’m so sorry.” His insincere tone contrasted with the words he chose. She could tell he was worried she was going to cancel the trip.

“Don’t worry; I’m not going to cancel the trip.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t. The expedition will take twice as long if you don’t go. You know where those EDMs are installed better than anyone else. I can’t have the team searching for a needle in a haystack up there; it’s too dangerous.”

“I know. Is Sean around?”

“He’s not back yet. You want me to tell him for you?”

“No. I want him to hear it from me. Will you just tell him that I need to speak with him, maybe around 2:30?”

“Sure. My condolences again, Kate.”

“Thank you.” She hung up the phone and stuffed it into the zipper of her handbag. Kate couldn’t help but wonder what he would have said if she had told him she needed to take a week off? She had no doubts someone young and blonde would be taking over.

David turned onto Walnut Lane, the street Jev lived on. Kate glimpsed her house from the corner. Her car wasn’t there, obviously she thought, and strangely, she felt as if she shouldn’t be there either.

“How is it going to be?” Kate asked David. “Being in Jev’s home, without her spirit energizing the rooms and knowing it never will again.”

“Right now, you have to take one moment at a time, Kate. A day, then a week, and so forth. You made it through your mother’s death; you’ll get through this too.”

“But I had Jev.”

“Now you have me.”

Kate met David’s eyes. “We barely know each other.” He looked away from her. “Really, David, I’ve known you less than six months. We’re both taking a chance.”

“The best things in life usually start from chance.” David pulled into Jev’s driveway and put the jeep in park. He reached for her hand and leaned into her, locking his gaze into her eyes. “I’ll stand by you, no matter what storms come along.”

It was all Kate needed to hear, but he continued.

“Even though I’ve never lost anyone close to me, I’m not new to death. I do know something about how people react to it and the processes of closure, those bitter moods and dark thoughts that surface as one tries to comprehend the changes in their life.” Something flickered in his eyes and he sat back a little and then looked out into Jev’s front yard. “I’m surrounded by death daily, Kate. I’ve seen more dead people than you can imagine; I’ve seen the gore, and I’ve seen the horrors on their loved ones’ faces.” He turned to her again. “I’m tough enough to handle this.”

Kate couldn’t hold back the tears any longer, and they dribbled down her cheeks in warm currents. David’s shoulder caught them as they hugged for a moment inside the jeep.

Jack and Louise’s silver Camry pulled up behind them just as Kate and David were getting out. When her dad got out, he glanced at her, flashing a short smile that said, “Let’s forget about the past,” and then walked toward the house by himself. He seemed to have distanced himself from Louise, and Kate wondered what they had talked about on the way over. He had pushed her away too when her mother died, but this time, he didn’t have Jev either.