Keeper of the Peace (Graveyard Guardians #2) (3 page)

He slowed his car and stopped at a crosswalk
so that a girl with a stroller and a sack of groceries could cross.
The young girl waved and then hurried to the other side of the
street. After he was sure she had made it safely to the other
sidewalk, he pressed on the accelerator.

When he hit the gas, several pedestrians
turned to see where the loud engine was coming from. He smiled to
himself when he looked over and saw the stares of admiration and
envy in each set of eyes. He didn’t blame them, his car was
beautiful. She was the love of his life at the moment and he
understood why others would have the same appreciation for her that
he had.

He looked around, surprised there were so
many people out already. A massive storm had hit the area a few
hours ago, letting loose a torrential rain, along with some pretty
nasty wind. The townspeople didn’t seem to care much because they
were already out and about.

A moment later he was turning the corner
that led to the rodeo grounds. A cluster of cars, including the
local police, were parked haphazardly in front of the senior
center. He whipped his car in next to the rest of them and killed
the engine.

Near the entrance to the senior center,
about ten seniors stood in a group gawking at the crime scene.

“Hey!” Mrs. Bradley called out. “Hey, is
that you David Foster?”

David sighed, but turned and smiled
politely. “Yes, Mrs. Bradley, it’s me.” He waved and the whole
group of seniors waved back enthusiastically.

“Someone was murdered!” she called back. “Is
that why you’re here?”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” He pointed in that
general direction. “I better get to it now.”

“Come over and visit us sometime and tell us
about big city life.”

“I will Mrs. Bradley,” he finished and then
hurried toward the crime scene.

Sheriff Davis was the first of the officials
to see him approaching. He glanced at David and then squinted as if
he thought he was hallucinating. When David got close enough, the
sheriff smiled and adjusted his hat. “Well, well … look who’s back
in town.”

David nodded in greeting, “I’m not back in
town. Just here to investigate the case.”

The sheriff tilted his lips into a smirk.
“Yeah, that’s what they all say. So, you’re working for the
county?”

Slipping his hand into the pocket of his
blazer, David withdrew a set of rubber gloves and moved in the
direction of the body. “Yes, sir. I’ve been placed up in
Lakeport.”

“Hmmm, I thought you left this place for the
bigger and better LAPD. What changed your mind?”

The body had been left as it was found, on
its side in the mud. David squatted down so that he could get a
better look at the victim. “I didn’t change my mind. There were
circumstances beyond my control that got me transferred there.”

“What kind of circumstances?” the sheriff
pried.

David responded without looking back, “I
don’t want to talk about it. Now, can we please get to the task at
hand?” He gestured to the body.

Damn, the sheriff hadn’t changed a bit
either. He would still talk your ear off, no matter what you were
doing at the time. He glanced around the body, the mud was churned
up all over the place, plus it appeared there were bruises on the
victims face. “Well, there was definitely a struggle here. Do you
know this guy?”

He glanced up at the sheriff while he waited
for an answer. The sheriff shook his head. “Nah, I’ve never seen
him before. I don’t think he’s a local.”

David reached around the body and carefully
pulled the guys wallet out of the back of his pants. “Well, let’s
see who he is then.” He flipped open the brown leather wallet.
Inside he found the contents of a man who did not want to be
identified. No credit cards or bank cards, but he had shit load of
big bills on hand. No business cards or anything to identify where
he was from or where he had been. His driver’s license was probably
fake, but said the victim’s name was Jeffery Myers from
Colorado.

“Let’s run this and see what we find.” He
held the card and wallet up for one of the local officers. A young
deputy held out an evidence bag for him and he dropped it
inside.

To his surprise, Sheriff Davis stood back
and let him do his job. Of course, he asked question after question
and recapped him on events that had occurred since he left. David
tried to tune him out as he worked, listening with half an ear and
answering with the occasional ‘uh huh’ or ‘yeah’.

He proceeded with his visual inspection of
the body until the medical examiner arrived at the scene.

“And Gregory Estmond passed away last month.
Such a shame for the world to lose a guy like that.”

David’s head swung up at the mention of his
ex-girlfriends father. “Mr. Estmond died?”

Sheriff Davis nodded. “Yeah, that bastard
cancer got him.”

Damn, he didn’t think anything could kill
Greg, that old man was one of the toughest people he knew. Still
squatting beside the body, he rocked back on his heels and wondered
how Hannah was dealing with the loss.

His first instinct was to go over and see
her, but then he remembered that he would be lucky if she ever
spoke to him again. If he had any regrets about leaving Summer
Hollow, Hannah was one of them.

He shook the thoughts away for the moment
and concentrated on the dead body in front of him. It was
definitely a murder, but self-defense was looking more and more
like a possibility. Beside him, the medical examiner was waiting
patiently for him to finish up so that they could begin their part
of the job.

He spoke briefly with the M.E. about the
victim and then turned the body over to them. He had done what he
could for now, the rest would have to wait until the body went to
autopsy.

The sheriff had finally moved on to harass
someone else, leaving David available to check out the scene
without someone chirping in his ear the whole time. He didn’t blame
the guy for not being more involved in the inspection of the case.
Murder was very, very, rare in Summer Hollow so the sheriff
probably didn’t know how to handle it.

David preferred to have the case to himself
without the locals stepping on his toes anyway.

He eyeballed the mud around the body. It was
churned up pretty good. There were several foot prints and smeared
hand prints all over. Whoever killed this guy certainly wasn’t
thinking about getting caught, that’s for sure. The lack of secrecy
and cover up of the crime indicated either a crime of passion or
self-defense. People who wanted to kill someone intentionally would
have tried to cover it up more.

He pulled his phone from his pocket and took
a few pictures of the foot and hand prints which were starting to
set in the mud. He was beginning to think that finding the killer
wasn’t going to be all that difficult. Really, it usually wasn’t
hard, the majority of murders were committed spur of the moment and
then the murderer runs without covering up the evidence. When they
do try to hide any evidence of their crime, it’s in a hasty manner
and they miss the most obvious things. Besides, technology has made
solving crime a hell of a lot easier than in the past.

The rain had washed away most of the foot
prints surrounding the area where the victim was killed. But, he
took a walk around the area anyway, to see if he could find
anything that would give him a reason to why someone would want
this man dead.

He ended up off in the trees beyond where
the body was found. There, where the trees provided a bit of cover
from the rain, he found two sets of footprints that appeared to be
running toward the crime scene. Again, he clicked a couple of
pictures to examine later and then continued inspecting the
area.

After a few feet, the prints separated. One
set veered off into the open area and disappeared. The other set
stayed mainly within the trees, but then exited from the backside
of the wooded area, which would indicate that person hadn’t wanted
to be seen coming in from the front of the rodeo grounds.

“Looks like we had someone who didn’t want
to be noticed,” David mumbled to himself, giving the prints one
last look before he headed back to the crime scene.

He joined the gaggle of officials
surrounding the body and knelt down by the medical examiner.
“So?”

“Well,” The guy glanced over at David. “The
knife wound definitely killed him. There was a struggle, he may
have hair or skin under his nails because of that but usually the
M.E. over at the morgue takes those samples and sends them over. We
are going to transport him over to Santa Rosa now.”

“Why Santa Rosa, they aren’t a county
hospital?”

The guy grinned and shook his head. “Believe
it or not, our hospital morgues have a fucking waiting list. We got
permission to transport to Santa Rosa because it’s a murder. I’m
assuming that you want the labs to come back ASAP, right?”

David clapped the young M.E. on the back and
stood. “That’s right. Good call.”

“They are preparing to load him up now. I’ll
send my final reports over there as soon as I’m finished.”

“Thanks man.”

It took him another twenty minutes to tell
Sheriff Davis what was up and say goodbye. The old man shook
David’s hand and executed one of his most serious expressions.
“David, you’ve always been a good kid and if you ever want to come
work for the SHPD, you have an open door here.”

“That is a kind offer, Sheriff, but I
wouldn’t plan on that happening anytime soon. I want to get back to
the city as soon as I can. This thing here is only temporary.”

The sheriff nodded, “We’ll see about that.
Oh, and don’t you dare leave town without stopping by to see Mrs.
Davis. She will tear me apart if she finds out you were here and
didn’t stop in to say hello to her.”

David nodded. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving
without seeing her.”

“Give us a heads up and I bet she will make
a turkey dinner, just for you. Every Thanksgiving she mopes around
because that damn bird reminds her of you.”

David finally felt a happy memory from
Summer Hollow slip into place. “I don’t know how I could turn that
down. I’ll call her as soon as I know when I will be free. Thanks,
Sheriff.” With that, he headed back to his car.

It would be a couple of hours before the
medical examiners over at the morgue would be able to get to the
body, so he had some time to kill before heading over the mountain.
He hadn’t really wanted anything to do with Summer Hollow anymore,
mostly he just wanted to forget about it, but he found himself
driving in the direction of his old house.

He took Main, which turned into Highway 175,
and headed out of town. As he drove, trees gradually got larger,
shading the road from sun and causing everything to appear just a
bit greener. Only a few minutes outside of Summer Hollow, he turned
his baby into the small community called The Springs.

His car roared through the tiny roads,
causing people to look up from weeding their gardens and watering
their plants. Some people waved, even though they didn’t know who
he was and others only stared, trying to figure out who was
disturbing their peaceful afternoon.

He reached a driveway that could barely be
seen through the overgrowth around the entrance. Turning in, he
followed the tiny dirt road into the trees, crossed over the
rickety old bridge with no rails, and then pulled into the open
area of the yard.

Why did he come here?

This shit was always better off left in the
past. But, no, he had to go and rip the fucking bandages off his
wounds that would probably never heal. Good going asshole.

He killed the engine of his car and sat
there, staring at his past.

This part of his life was behind him and he
knew that. His parents were gone and he was the only child, thank
God for that, but the past never really left a person. He would
wear the scars of his childhood forever. The only good thing that
came from living in this hellhole of a place was Hannah and he
fucked that up for good too.

The single wide trailer sat on the edge of
the bank which gave way to the creek below. On the backside of the
trailer, a sliding glass door led to a deck that overlooked the
water. He used to take his sleeping bag out there all the time and
sleep under the stars with the sound of the running water lulling
him into slumber.

He didn’t want to get out of the car so he
just sat there staring at the place. The outside was overgrown with
tall grass and weeds. No one had been back to care for the place
since his father died.

The last thing he wanted to do was go inside
that nightmare of a house. What he really wanted to do was burn the
mother fucker down, and probably would if he thought he could get
away with it. That was the reason why he never rented the place out
or tried to sell it. It was almost as if he didn’t want to expose
anyone else to the evil protruding within those paper thin walls.
It was a nightmare, but it was his to deal with alone.

Letting out a very long, emotional sigh, he
glanced at his watch and saw that it was almost time to head over
to Santa Rosa and see about the labs for the murder victim. He
flipped the key and his baby let out a loud rumble in response.

Time to get back to work and forget about
all this again.

CHAPTER

3

HANNAH

The Estmond kitchen was packed full of
Keepers and one dark haired Reaper. Everyone was talking or yelling
as they tried to figure out how to handle the situation with
Hannah.

“I should just turn myself in,” Hannah
insisted.

There was a chorus of “No’s” and a lot of
head shaking from the family.

“Absolutely not!” Daniel told her sternly.
“You need to act like everything is normal, which means going to
work.”