Chapter Twelve
Gabe pulled up to the check point and rolled down his window. A uniform he didn’t recognize approached the vehicle. Gabe handed over his credentials before the younger man could ask for them. The cop looked up at him, “Sir,” before nodding to the officer stationed on the other side of the car. Gabe shifted back into gear and continued down the road.
Double parking beside a police issued vehicle, he grabbed the coffee he shouldn’t have stopped for, and guzzled the last third of it. He was tired, and pissed, maybe not in that order. There was radio silence from Lianna since she ran out last night. After tossing and turning in bed, he had finally fallen into a restless sleep. Only to wake up earlier than usual thanks to a call from his office.
The sun had started to rise, but underneath the downtown buildings it was still dark. Gabe got out of his SUV and tried to process the scene. Up ahead on his right, the US Consulate was lit up like a Christmas tree. He set off at a brisk pace for the building. Based on the call that had dragged his sorry ass out of bed, a known drug dealer was found with his throat slashed in front of the building. Not only did it create work for Gabe—yes, he knew that was a vile way to think of a murder—but it also created a shitstorm of a power struggle over jurisdiction.
Fortunately, the politics weren’t any of Gabe’s concern—he was here to work the scene. Nodding to officers and a few CSIs he recognized, Gabe handed over his credentials to another uniform. Past him, the victim lay behind a cordoned off section of sidewalk in front of the building.
“Figured you’d show up, Williamson.”
The man handed back his credentials and gave Gabe a log-in clipboard to sign. Gabe patted the man on the shoulder before hurdling the yellow tape. A familiar barking laugh pulled his attention to a small group of men who were watching the technicians work. Dan looked up and made eye contact with Gabe.
The men often worked two sides of the same coin. In Vancouver, like most big cities, drugs, gangs and homicides went hand in hand. There was even talk about a combined special enforcement unit they were putting together to handle the current wave of organized crime.
“Why do you look like shit? Ya just got here.” Dan asked as he sauntered over.
“Fill me in.” Gabe asked, not in the mood for their usual banter.
“It’s D.D. Peters.”
Gabe’s eyes rounded.
“Yeah, something tells me this is going to get a lot worse. I put a call into The Six. He’s been living in a condo on Lake Ontario and staying under the radar for the past nine months. Fell off the map completely about two weeks ago. Shows up with his throat slashed to the bone on the steps of the US Consulate in Vancouver.”
“Shit,” Gabe went to run a hand through his hair then remembered he was wearing a beanie to fight off the early morning chill.
“And get this. It’s all on surveillance video. Three guys carry him halfway up the steps, lay him down, then one of them turns and flips off the camera.”
“So, this is a secondary scene.” Gabe made a mental note. “We get any hits on them?”
“All had masks on, long sleeves and pants. They knew the drill. Got in a vehicle out of camera view between the building and the intersection. We were able to pull footage from the traffic cam, based on the time stamp. Big black SUV.”
“And I’m sure we’ll find it burned out in a ditch by mid-morning.”
Dan grunted his response as the two walked in unison to view the victim. A female in head-to-toe white protective gear was just finishing bagging the victim’s hands. She paused to smile up at Dan before she went back to her task. The forensic photographer was snapping his last pictures and their victim was minutes from being put into a body bag. The downside of living in the burbs, Gabe was never first on scene anymore. The plus side, a better quality of life for Jake. That was the only side that mattered.
Gabe took in the gruesome image. Even without the surveillance footage, he could tell the man wasn’t killed here. Only a minimal amount of blood surrounded the head, which was contorted to an obscene angle. However, his clothing was saturated with the crimson liquid. If he hadn’t known how much pain and suffering the exiled leader of one of the city’s largest organized crime syndicates had caused while living, he would have felt bad for the guy.
“Huh?” Dan seemed to be looking for the answer to a question.
“What’s that?”
“You okay? You seem distracted … again.” Dan said.
“No, I’m tired as shit.” Among other things . Gabe couldn’t open up to Dan. While he was his best friend, Dan’s emotional maturity was on par with a pre-teen.
“I said, you wanna go look at the footage? In an hour, this consulate is going to be a mad house. I’d prefer to be back at the office by then.”
Gabe looked at his watch. Not even 7:00 AM. That was good, he needed to be back by early afternoon for the boys’ flag football game.
“You walked?” Gabe asked, noticing Dan’s running shorts and sneakers.
“Jogged. Needed to clear my head.”
“All right, I’ll drive.”
“Then I’ll buy the donuts.” Dan smirked as Gabe led him away from the scene.
****
Lianna woke up feeling like she had an epic hangover. She was exhausted, her eyes swollen as if she had been crying, and her head pounded. Then she remembered. The encounter with Darren, blowing things with Gabe, and then the phone call.
Dragging herself out of bed, her mind was laser focused on acquiring caffeine. Yes, she could make coffee, but she could also walk ten minutes to the café and get coffee that was drinkable. That would also get her some much-needed exercise. She hadn’t jogged recently, unless you counted when she scared herself into sprinting away from lost drivers. Her jeans were starting to notice.
After washing up and making the bed, Lianna stretched, because she was really buying into this whole exercise thing. Then she quickly donned the blackest hoodie and leggings in her closet, preferring when her attire matched her mood. Pulling messy, bed flattened curls back into a high ponytail as she walked, she paused to grab some change from the entryway console.
Just before she opened the front door, she stopped herself— the alarm —remembering at the last possible second. She pulled her phone from her pocket and opened the home security app. Punching in her passcode, a new alert popped up from last night. It was a notification that someone was at the front door shortly after 2:00 AM. Unfortunately, there was no video footage to accompany the alert.
She was disappointed in herself for even considering that perhaps Gabe came to talk things out. Shaking her head, she pushed Gabe to the back of her mind. A latte was currently calling her name.
A delightful breeze rushed in as she opened the door. The cold air was a welcome slap to the face, immediately refreshing her. Jogging down her front porch stairs and up the driveway, the leaves crunched under her feet as she took in the pretty autumn morning. This fall was turning out to be beautiful. Crisp, sunny days and foggy but warmer evenings. By the time she had gotten her coffee from the quaint café and taken a few sips, she began feeling human again.
The caffeine pumping through her felt so good she decided to take the long way home. Savoring the warm liquid, she power walked up and down the hilly landscape. The sunlight filtered through the tall evergreens, as the seagulls and crows cawed their greetings. By the time she reached the driveway her mood had done a one-eighty.
Pausing, she smiled at the picture her home made. A beautiful, two-story traditional Pacific Northwest house, with white painted brick and towering wooden beams. Three happy, and a little sloppy-looking, Jack-a-lanterns welcomed her back home. She would be shocked if the pumpkins made it until Halloween, as one of them was already beginning to cave in on itself. Harris’s wore a giant bug on the side.
Approaching her front porch, she noticed her letterbox was open and a sheet of paper stuck out. Striding towards the box, she transferred her coffee to the other hand and reached in. As Lianna pulled out the folded paper, something slid onto her hand and down her wrist before dropping to the ground.
Jumping back with a gasp, she looked down in search of what had just been on her. A spider the size of her clawed hand lay on its back unmoving. Letting out a high-pitched squeal, she retreated a step and felt a crunch under her shoe. Spinning, she saw the leaf she had stepped on earlier was moving.
As she looked around the front porch, she noticed them—half a dozen giant spiders either dead or barely moving. Out of the corner of her eye she saw another one fall from the letterbox that she had just put her hand in. Shrieking, Lianna hightailed it off the porch and sprinted over to the garage. Quickly punching in the code, she jogged in place waiting for the door to lift. She couldn’t stand still, couldn’t stop moving.
After an eternity, the door opened enough for her to slip inside. Throwing her empty coffee cup down, she flailed around like a fish. She rubbed her hands up and down her body, then around to her back as far as she could reach. The sweatshirt she shucked lay in a pile at her feet. Lianna took out her hair, then bent upside down to shake it out. She was still tap dancing and shrieking when she realized there were no spiders on her.
“Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit!”
After closing the garage door, Lianna tore into the mudroom to wash her hands. She withstood the scalding water for as long as it was bearable, washing up to her elbows as if she were preparing for a surgery.
“Oh, my God.”
Lianna’s heart raced at a million miles per hour. On occasion she found the odd Hobo spider around her property, but had never seen that many huge ones together. Trying to calm herself, she recalled they were harmless, but they were so freaking big it wasn’t helping.
Lianna’s entire body involuntarily shook. Spiders were her kryptonite. Bracing both hands on the edge of the sink, she took calming breaths, gathering herself. She needed to get rid of those nasty monsters before the kids came home. It was an appalling task, but they weren’t going to clean up themselves. It was unnerving to guess how many more could be in that mailbox.
After considering her best course of action, she grabbed a jacket. It wasn’t all that cold outside, but she felt better with the extra layer of protection. Next, she tracked back through the garage, grabbing bug spray and the broom. Armed for battle, Lianna cautiously headed outside and for the porch.
They are smaller than you, and you can run faster than them.
As soon as their hideous shapes came into view, she considered turning around. Groaning instead, she tiptoed forward, scared she would wake them. Mercifully, they appeared to be all dead, with only one still making uncoordinated, jerky movements. Raising the bug spray, she aimed at that one first, then gave the others a thorough dosing for good measure.
She retreated from the porch as the fumes cleared, remotivating herself to finish the job. After several minutes she used the thick broom to sweep them off the porch, and as deep into the surrounding bushes as possible. Out of sight, out of mind.
The thought of lowering her head to get a look inside the letterbox was unconscionable, so instead she also gave it a thorough spray. Whatever lay inside was the mailman’s issue now. She’d leave him a nice little gift at Christmas.
Glancing around, she sighed, mission accomplished. As she descended the front steps, a glare from the white sheet of paper that had been in her mail caught her attention. It lay just ahead on the grass. In her initial hasty flee from the porch it slipped her mind. Grabbing the paper, she headed inside. After discarding her tools, she again washed her hands and wearily headed into the kitchen.
With the job completed, she tried to stop thinking about it. There was a full day’s worth of errands to complete, with only a few hours until Annie and Harris came home. Unfolding the paper, her hand froze halfway to the garbage bin.
Written in sloppy, red ink were the words, You’ll be dead soon too. Gasping, she read the words again, as if they would make more sense the second time around. She had seen that handwriting before, similar words were written in all caps on her garbage bin accompanying the dead raccoon.
Rage coursed through her. Why ? Why me ? Crumpling the sheet in her fist, she threw it in the garbage. A throaty yell escaped her as despair edged out the anger. Her eyes burned with the tears threating to break free. And then they did.
Lianna pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes, but the tears kept coming. Her body trembled, as rivers of snot and tears ran together, before dripping off her chin. She sank down onto the wooden floor and tucked her knees into her chest as she let herself cry. At some point, the release that came with her sobs felt almost good, so she welcomed them.
Sitting there until her body felt devoid of water, Lianna’s breathing hitched when she made herself stand up. Finally on her feet again, the pounding in her head was back in full force. Lianna knew she wasn’t tough enough to shake this off and go on with her day.
Feeling like a failure, but too emotionally drained to care, she searched the kitchen for her phone. Lianna couldn’t do this all on her own, and it was high time she stopped trying. Grabbing her cell, she called her best friend.
“Hey, girly, what’s up?” Isabela answered, sounding high on life.
“Hey, Izzy, you busy?” Lianna tried to talk through a hiccup but failed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I had a really bad morning. I’m sure you’re busy but I need to vent.”
“I was just about to grocery shop, which you know I loathe. I’ll come up.”
“No. You don’t have to do that, it’s an hour and a half out of your way.”
“Nonsense, I’d much rather hang out with you. Are you okay until I get there?”
“Yeah, definitely. I hate to see you drive all this way, but if you are looking for an excuse to get out of errands, I could really use a hug.”
“Say no more, I’m leaving in five.”
“You are the best.”
“I love you too, see you soon.”
****
Isabela arrived just under two hours later. She had coffees and a bottle of wine in hand when Lianna opened the front door.
“I didn’t know what you needed more, caffeine or alcohol. So, I brought both.”
“Going to law school was the best decision I ever made.”
“Because you met me?” Isabela laughed, entering the house, and kicking off her shoes.
“Obviously.”
Lianna took the coffees and led Isabela into the kitchen. While waiting for her friend to arrive, Lianna had showered. But then her energy wore out. She didn’t bother with her hair and wore her coziest pajamas, even though it was barely noon.
Setting down the wine with a clunk, Isabela held out her arms and made a come-hither motion with her hands.
“Come to momma. You look like crap.”
Laughing, Lianna walked into her friend’s arms for the comfort she so desperately needed. As Isabela squeezed, Lianna felt the tension melting away. In the moment, her situation wasn’t so desperate, and she wasn’t alone. It was comical really, finding so much support from a woman whom Lianna could rest her chin on the top of her head. Looking down, Lianna found big brown eyes staring up at her in question.
“Do you have any chips?”
Releasing Isabela, Lianna smiled. “Go sit down, I’ll grab the snacks.”
A minute later, Lianna was curled up into the corner of her couch with trash TV playing mindlessly in the background.
“Is this about Gabe?” Isabela began softly.
“Ha,” Lianna laughed humorlessly. “No, well, yes, we’ll get to him.”
Isabela watched her patiently, so Lianna went on, filling her friend in the giant dead spiders and poignant message left in the mailbox.
“It seems silly now, that I cried over bugs. I’m really losing it,” Lianna said.
“It’s not silly, it’s disgusting. Also, you realize this isn’t a joke, right? It’s honestly gone too far at this point.”
“I know. The police were out here last week because of the marks by the back window. I filed a report, telling them about the raccoon as well. I called again after I got off the phone with you and added this to my file.” Lianna sighed.
“What did the officer say?” Izzy asked.
“That it appears someone is targeting me and that I need to be especially careful of my surroundings. To not go out alone if I can help it. The typical. They don’t trace calls unless it is part of ongoing litigation due to a backlog. They did offer to send an officer over but that is pointless. The spiders are cleaned up.”
“What about the note?”
“I threw it in the garbage.”
“Lianna for a smart woman you do some awfully dumb things! There could be fingerprints on that. They could do a handwriting analysis to compare the first note with it.”
“I feel dumb! I don’t understand why someone is targeting me. It makes no more sense today than it did a few weeks ago when it started.”
“I still think it has to be someone you know,” Isabela said. “Start listing the people you’ve pissed off.”
“I didn’t think there was a list, but there must be.”
“While the police were talking to me, they asked if I knew Justine Starks. I’m guessing it’s because of the proximity of our homes, but just the idea of lumping us together creeps me out.”
“Oh, my God! What the hell.”
“I know. The detective wouldn’t elaborate on why they asked me about her. Said they were crossing their Ts and dotting their Is.”
“Shit. That’s scary. I hate this for you. But I’m glad they are exploring every angle of both cases. Trust them to do their jobs and take the advice they give to keep you safe.”
“I will,” Lianna promised.
Isabela slid down the length of the couch and snuggled into Lianna’s side.
“Now tell me about him.”
Lianna didn’t pretend to misunderstand who Isabela was referring to.
“Izzy, I messed up.”
“How bad?”
When Lianna described how she had clammed up then freaked out after Gabe gave her the most pleasure she could ever recall receiving, her girlfriend cringed in response.
“I told you it was bad.”
“But understandable. Li, you haven’t been with anyone in a long time. Of course, you’re going to be terrified. But based on the way you talk about Gabe, he’s special. You need to talk to him, he deserves honesty, not a cold shoulder. He’s probably hurt and confused.”
“When did you get so wise?”
“Apparently my wisdom only applies to other people’s love lives.” Isabela faked a laugh.
“I will talk to him, just not today. I’ve had enough drama for one day. It used to be so easy to talk to Gabe. I hope we can get back to that.”
“You will … or you won’t. But stressing about it right now won’t fix anything. Just don’t wait too long to talk to him. Imagine if you were in his shoes.”
“I know,” Lianna squeezed her eyes shut, trying to push the mix of pain, anger and regret away.
Isabela patted Lianna’s leg and let the conversation drop, which she was thankful for. Turning her attention to the television, Lianna tried hard to keep the intrusive thoughts of her lurker at bay. But the idea that she knew the person breathing through the phone last night was downright frightening. And if that was her perpetrator’s goal, then they won. Lianna was frightened. However, what terrified her, was the thought that they wanted more. What if they weren’t done? Did they really want her dead? There were more questions than answers, but Lianna knew the most important question was figuring out who was upending her life.
****
Gabe sat in his home office trying to catch up on the flood of emails surrounding his latest case. It was dark, his son asleep upstairs. The familiar sound of the Sunday Night Football announcers calling whatever game was on TV floated in from the living room. Gabe’s leg vibrated restlessly in his chair, as he re-read the same line from whatever document was in front of him.
Why was she so upset last night ? Of all the crap he had on his plate, that was the thought that kept resurfacing. If he at least knew what he did wrong, then he could set about trying to fix it, but he had no idea. One minute she was ready to pet him, the next she was running like he had a rash on his dick. The real kicker was he didn’t even feel any anger towards her, just at the situation. A situation that he singlehandedly created. If he hadn’t played games with her, he wouldn’t be in this current predicament.
It had been a long time since Gabe was in a relationship, but he never remembered it being this hard. Dan’s words came back to him, “ It’s always complicated when they’re worth it.” He raked his hands down his face, sighing.
Maybe he should be angry with Lianna. After all she came to his house, then ran out on him. But he wasn’t, he missed her. He wanted to decompress with her, laugh with her, and do a few other things with her. Gabe made a decision. Even if the outcome of going to see her was an argument, he’d rather be arguing with her, than sitting peacefully alone at home. And what did that say?
Quickly dialing Dolores, he let her know he had to run out for a bit. He hustled upstairs, brushed his teeth, and changed. Then he set off for Lianna’s, his only mission to breathe the same air as her.