Chapter 15 #2
Just as she opened her mouth to speak to Rory, her phone rang.
Of course, it did.
Expecting it to be Luke, she glanced down and arched a brow in surprise. It was her mom. “Ah crap.” If she didn’t take this, her mother would worry herself sick.
Last thing she wanted was to see her mother hysterical, thinking something had happened to her. Having seen the nightmare over her sister, she wasn’t about to put her mother through that.
“Something wrong?” Rory asked.
“No, I just need to be rude for a second. Hang on.” She answered the phone. “Hi, Mom.”
“Baby! How are you doing?”
“I’m fine and actually on a date. Mind if I call you back?”
“Goodness no! Tell him I said hi.” Her mom hung up immediately.
She set her phone aside. “My mom says hi.”
“Okay.”
“I know and I’m sorry. It’s just she worries about me, so I try to never roll her calls.
If I do, her mind goes to dark places. Same if I text.
If she doesn’t hear my voice, she thinks someone has taken me and is using the phone to toy with her.
” Her mom had been bad before Siobhan’s death. Since then…
Sorcha always picked up.
“Totally understood. I do the same with my mom. Being a cop, she always thinks I’m dead in a ditch somewhere.” His eyes widened as he realized what he’d said to her. “I mean… I—”
“It’s okay, Rory. I know you weren’t being insensitive.
” It was easy for people who’d never experienced her nightmare to make comments like that.
And while it sometimes hurt, she didn’t want others to have to dance around eggshells because tragedy had decided to assault her and her family.
She didn’t want anyone to go through their nightmare.
Before he could comment, his phone rang. He glanced at it, then frowned. “Not my mom…worse.” He answered it. “Corvan.”
As the waitress neared their table, Sorcha waved the girl away, since she wasn’t sure how personal that call was. In the event it was work, she was sure Rory wouldn’t want the stranger to overhear.
“I’m on my way.”
Definitely not personal. “Crime call?”
He let out a long sigh. “And this is why I don’t date. Most wouldn’t be happy that I had to leave before we even got to order.”
Rory was right. She understood, as she’d been in his shoes before. There was nothing worse than that disappointed look on someone’s face when she had to get up and leave at a moment’s notice. One of her dates had even once said, “They’re dead. Can’t they wait?”
Needless to say, there had never been another date with that jerk.
But Rory understood and so did she.
“Can I ride along?” she asked him.
“Sure. Especially since this might be one of yours more than mine.”
Oh fun. “What is it?”
“Another student.”
Her stomach shrank at those words. Please don’t be our unknown shredder… She didn’t want to see another mangled kid. “Like the others?”
“Yeah.”
Why would the perp keep going after Amandine when she was no longer here? Had he missed the memo?
She wanted to call Luke, but given the animosity between him and Rory, she thought better of it. No need to get them fighting at the scene again.
Rory dropped a handful of bills on the table to cover their drinks before they left the restaurant.
By the time they arrived at the Wormsloe historic site, it was almost dark. Even so, the huge stone archway they drove under was impossible to miss. “What is this place?”
“An old colonial site.”
The Spanish moss-draped trees made an eerie curtain as they drove down the paved road. It was like something from a horror movie.
Under other circumstances, the drive might be lovely. But in the fading light, it was quite spooky.
Now… In spite of the heat, She shivered in heartfelt pain over another family being torn apart.
They left the car and headed for what appeared to be another cemetery on the premises.
Police lights guided them to where the ME and other officers were already working on site. She took her badge out and clipped it to her belt before she put on a pair of latex gloves.
Rory was right. It looked just like their other crime scenes. Including the mutilated body that had been dumped next to a grave that had a small gate around it.
“Inigo Jones?”
Rory gave her a blank stare. “So it appears.”
“Inigo?” she repeated, thinking he’d recognize the reference.
He didn’t. “Yeah?”
My name is Inigo Montoya… You killed my father… Prepare to die! Obviously, Rory had never seen or read The Princess Bride.
Maybe Luke was right and she did have a streaming addiction.
She trailed along behind him as he approached one of the officers.
“Hey, Brian. What’s going on here?”
“A student who was geocaching.”
“Geo what?” she asked.
The officer scratched at his ear. “I didn’t know either until the ME explained it.
Geocaching. It’s like a huge global treasure hunt where people log into an app and use it to locate items that have notes or other things in them.
Then they photograph themselves with the item and log it in for others to enjoy.
I don’t get it, but apparently, it’s a thing. ”
It sounded really interesting to her. So she pulled out her phone in order to explore the trend.
“Any other details?” Rory asked.
“When the student didn’t return from her search, the roommate came out here to find her.
Since they were using their phone to track the item, it was easy for the roommate to locate the body.
She says she didn’t touch anything before she called us.
” He jerked his chin toward the ambulance.
“She’s over there if you want to interview her. ”
Feeling for the roommate’s pain, Sorcha made her way over to the girl who was wrapped in a weighted blanket, for comfort.
The young woman was pale and shaking. “Please don’t ask me any more questions. I can’t keep reliving this.”
“I know and I’m sorry. I just wanted to offer you a hug.”
The girl threw herself against Sorcha and started crying even harder.
Sorcha just held her as she was taken back to that moment when the police had shown up at her house on that cold winter night.
Because of Mono, she’d been home, instead of at school, in her dorm.
For reasons she still didn’t understand, she’d gone to bed fully clothed that night. It was as if some part of her had known that she’d need to be dressed to deal with what was coming for her family.
Just before dawn, her mother had been getting ready for work. Sorcha had awakened to the sound of someone knocking on her bedroom window.
“Sorcha?”
It’d sounded just like her sister’s voice. Thinking Siobhan had snuck home to see her, she had gone to the window and pulled back the curtains.
At that exact moment, the police car had rolled into their driveway.
Her mother had gone outside to meet them, and Sorcha had watched curiously as everything unfolded in slow motion. “What happened? Did my daughter have a car wreck?”
Such a simple question.
“No, ma’am. We’re here to inform you…”
Sorcha wouldn’t allow those words to finish even now. If she lived a thousand years, she’d never forget them. Or the sight of her mother screaming and falling to the ground. Of the police having to carry her petite mother into the house where Sorcha waited in stunned silence.
Her mother’s hysterical screams had awakened her father.
Sorcha had staggered back to her bed and just sat there, trying to fathom the horror.
Tears gathered in her eyes as she held the girl and tried not to remember the one memory she’d give anything to forget.
After several minutes, the student pulled away and wiped at her tears with the back of her hand. “You do know, don’t you?”
Too choked up to speak, she nodded.
“Miss Norton—”
Sorcha held her hand up to cut off Rory’s words. “She made a statement to the police already. I think she needs to be taken home.”
Rory nodded. “I’ll get an officer to do it.”
As he walked off, Sorcha had a peculiar chill go down her spine. That crinkly feeling that came from being watched.
Turning around slowly, all she saw were the officers and support staff…police cars, an ambulance, flashing lights. The moss-covered trees.
Nothing was out…
Her thought trailed off as she caught sight of a black dog in the shrubbery. At first glance, it looked like Luke’s mom. But there was something different, too.
Without thinking, she started for the dog.
Baring its teeth, it growled at her before it vanished into a cloud of gray smoke.
“What did I miss?”
Sorcha actually screamed at the deep, resonant bass in her ear. “Jesus!”
“Not even close.” Luke flashed a grin at her. “You okay?”
“I don’t know.” She gestured toward the bushes where the dog had been. “I think I just saw a hellhound.”
Luke scowled at her. “Where?”
“Over there.”
Without another word, he headed for it.
After a couple of minutes, he returned to her side. “Not a hellhound.”
“What then?”
“Definitely a shifter. Just not one of ours.”
She was getting irritated by his short answers. “Why do you say that?”
“The scent of chocolate is all over the place. Can’t miss it. Precludes a real canine as they’d be lying in a bush somewhere, dead or sick. Plus, I can’t find a trail so whoever it was teleported out of here.”
The fact he knew that without her telling him was terrifying.
He was a vital asset to their group. Reyes had been wise to hire him.
Even if he was the devil’s own.
Strange how that wasn’t as scary to her anymore.
And before he could say anything else, Rory approached them with a determined stride. The fury in his dark eyes was tangible. He held his hand right under Luke’s nose. “This the right number of star points?”
Pulling Rory’s hand back, Luke glanced down at the pendant Rory held. “Still not mine.”
“That’s convenient.”
“The truth often is.”
Rory narrowed his gaze on Luke. “There’s something not right about you.”
“It’s the fleas. They make me itchy.”
Rolling his eyes, Rory clenched the pendant in his fist. “I still think you’re involved.”
“We’re even. I still think you’re a dickweed.”