Chapter Two #2
After putting high-protein wet cat food in a bowl and setting it on the floor, Stefanie watched Curlie devour it while she grabbed a bottle of water out of the black refrigerator, opened it and drank a generous amount.
Her thoughts turned again to the dead woman at the park and what may have been behind it—before she found herself pulling the flyer out of her pocket that she had never gotten around to discarding in the trash.
Instead of doing so now, she stared at the brief info on the Braison Family.
It seemed welcoming enough. And breathed life in its messaging instead of death. Maybe she would check it out sometime.
Stefanie took the flyer with her as she headed up the stairs to wash a load of clothes and make plans for the rest of her day, which had been altered unexpectedly by heartbreak.
* * *
CAMPBELL WAS, QUITE FRANKLY, left with more questions than answers after parting ways with the lovely Stefanie Nguyen.
The celebratory mood of Founder’s Day had dampened, for him at least, with the strange death of the as-yet-unnamed young woman.
What circumstances had led to her ending up naked and dead in Reston Hills Park?
How long had she been deceased when her body was found?
If her death wasn’t self-inflicted, who had killed her?
And did it have anything to do with the Braison Family cult?
Knowing he would need to exercise a little patience, Campbell took a proverbial chill pill as he drove away from the park.
He would need to wait on the autopsy report to learn the exact cause of the woman’s death, and pair that with any forensic evidence that might come from the Crime Scene Investigation Unit that had been dispatched to the scene and could offer some useful findings in the case.
In the meantime, Campbell turned his thoughts to the one who’d discovered the corpse.
All he really knew at the moment about Stefanie was that she was relatively new in town—which explained how he’d managed to miss running into her at some point, as he would definitely have remembered if he had seen her before—and originally from San Antonio.
So how did she end up in Reston Hills? Was she there alone? He hadn’t seen a ring on her finger. That didn’t mean she wasn’t hitched. Or without a romantic partner. Any local who was single, available and age compatible would be lucky to have her, if he were basing it on looks alone.
But even beyond that, from what little exchange they’d had, she seemed pretty cool under fire after seeing the dead woman on the trail. Stefanie had even expressed regret in not being able to prevent what had happened, as if she would ever have been able to do so.
It did make him even more curious about her. What was her occupation? He wondered if she could have been a psychologist or counselor, experienced in working with people in trouble. Or did her compassion just come naturally?
Maybe I’ll get to ask her these things sometime—and more, Campbell told himself, more than willing to open up about himself in return should the opportunity present itself.
He pulled into the parking lot of the Reston Hills Police Department on Fourteenth Street. When he stepped inside the building, Campbell wasn’t at all surprised to see that it was short-staffed, with much of the personnel out in the field. Or taking the day off.
That wasn’t the case with Gloria Schecter, chief of police, who was in her office, busy on her laptop.
She’d been around since his father was on the force, working her way through the ranks to her present position.
She noticed him through the open blinds on her window, acknowledging him routinely with a nod before continuing what she was doing.
Campbell sat on a mid-back swivel chair at a wooden desk in his low-walled cubicle, where he did paperwork on his last investigation of a burglary ring.
Juvenile offenders had targeted several local businesses before they were finally apprehended.
Another case solved, but whether the perps could learn a lesson from this remained to be seen.
“Hey,” Campbell heard a voice say.
He looked up at Detective Georgina Alvarez, who was in her forties, tall and slim, with dark blond hair in a pixie cut.
“Hey,” he said. “Isn’t this your day off?”
“I wish.” She rolled her brown eyes. “Or maybe not. Ted had to work today, so I figured I might as well come in.”
Ted Penaflor was a deputy sheriff with the Eckerslin County Sheriff’s Department and Georgina’s longtime boyfriend.
Whenever Campbell had broached the subject of marriage, Georgina, having once been stood up at the altar, had taken the position of not wanting to rock the boat.
Or, in her words, “If it ain’t broken, why would I want to fix it—possibly ruining a good thing? ”
Campbell had hardly been able to argue the point, considering that his previous relationship with Naomi had ended before he could ever put a ring on her finger.
Meaning that they probably would have ended up in divorce court.
But that didn’t deter him from wanting to get married—should someone come along who could put that fever in him.
Georgina was saying, “Just got through taking a statement from a woman who accused her on-and-off-again boyfriend of abusing her—and had the bruises to back it up.”
Campbell frowned. “Is he in custody?”
“Not yet. He’d fled the scene by the time officers arrived.” Georgina sighed. “He won’t get far. We’ve got a BOLO out on his Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend.”
“Good.” Campbell hated the thought of any kind of domestic violence. “If he’s guilty, he needs to answer for his actions.”
“I agree wholeheartedly.” She sat at her nearby desk. “Heard you’re investigating a naked body found in Reston Hills Park…”
“Yeah.” He paused and thought about Stefanie, who’d come upon the corpse.
“The dead woman somehow ended up on a trail near the river. Unnamed, for the time being. The death could certainly be described as peculiar—given both the location and lack of any clothing or identifying materials in the vicinity.”
“Hmm…” Georgina made a face. “Looks like you have your work cut out for you.”
“What else is new?” Campbell tossed at her sardonically. “The answers will be forthcoming soon enough.” His only real question at this point was just how satisfactory those answers would be. And where they might lead.
When his shift ended, Campbell headed out in his take-home vehicle.
He lived in a two-story, four-bedroom modern farmhouse on Charliss Lane.
He’d purchased the place when returning to Reston Hills three and a half years ago, getting a good deal on it from the previous owners.
Sitting on three acres of pristine land, he envisioned a place to raise a family someday and enjoy each other’s company.
After parking in the driveway in front of the two-car garage, Campbell left his vehicle and walked up to the house. Striding onto the covered porch, which had a natural wood porch swing, he unlocked the door and went inside.
The main floor had high ceilings, a spacious great room, formal dining room, den and primary bedroom—all set on parquet hardwood flooring, with double-hung windows covered by vinyl vertical blinds—with rustic hickory furniture.
The gourmet kitchen had granite countertops, its own eating space and all the modern appliances for cooking.
Upstairs were two nice-size furnished bedrooms with their own en suite bathrooms, and an extra room that was currently used for storage.
There was a wraparound back deck, with lots of room to roam free on the grassy spaces.
Basically, it was everything Campbell could ask for in a home.
Well, almost. He wasn’t particularly happy living all by his lonesome.
Sharing the space with a significant other was high on his wish list. He imagined a beauty like Stefanie Nguyen would fit nicely here.
First, he had to get to know her better and see if she was available and had any interest whatsoever in getting to know him—and take it from there.
Turning his thoughts to what to do for dinner, Campbell chose to take the easy way out and got on his cell phone to order a Philly cheesesteak pizza.
It would go well with a bottle of beer that was in the side-by-side refrigerator.
He could use the time to contemplate why a young woman would end up dead in Reston Hills Park on Founder’s Day, of all days.