Chapter 6 – Stone
STONE
When Danger, Tomb, Juice, and Halo arrived, Sin told them what happened.
He left out the part about Kim, and I couldn’t have been more grateful.
What happened with Kim was specific to me.
No one else would have been affected by an unexpected woman jumping out of a casket the same way I was, since no one else had unknowingly cremated someone because she was in a casket when she shouldn’t have been.
It would’ve happened again if you hadn’t checked the casket a second time.
I tried to ignore the thought. There was no way I wouldn’t have checked again. The noise was coming from inside the casket. I wouldn’t have stopped looking until I found it.
Unless she passed out.
She would’ve had time to wake up again. I was still waiting for Sin to give the all-clear from the background check.
You don’t know that.
I made a noise of discontent. My inner narrator was pissing me off.
“What was that?” Sin asked, bringing my attention back to the present.
“Sorry, Prez. My fucking head hurts. Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“Halo, get him an ice pack and text Stitch to make sure he’s at the clubhouse. I want him to take a look at Stone after we’re finished here,” Sin said, then directed his attention to me. “I asked if you counted the money.”
“Fuck. I completely forgot. I’ll do it now.”
“No the fuck you won’t. Stay right there and put that ice on your head. Danger, count it and make sure it’s all there.”
“Even if the money’s right, we need to talk to Johnny first,” Juice said. “Want to send someone to get him?”
“Yeah, but not a prospect. Send Radar or Cross.”
“Cash is correct,” Danger said.
Sin nodded. “Put it in the safe. I want to get back to the clubhouse and call church.”
Fuck. Sitting through church was something I didn’t want to do.
I wanted to sleep until my head stopped hurting.
I visibly sagged with relief when I saw one of the club’s golf carts parked outside.
The crematory wasn’t far from the clubhouse, but it was farther than I wanted to walk with a pounding headache in the sweltering heat.
“You can thank me for that.” Juice patted my shoulder as he passed me on his way to the cart. “But I’m not waiting for you, so get moving.”
Juice took off as soon as I dropped into the seat, leaving his three sons to walk back. “You okay after that?”
I knew what he meant, and I appreciated him asking it the way he did, which is probably why I answered with a sliver of the truth. “It rattled me.”
“I’d be worried if it didn’t, but give them a chance to find out what happened before you get lost in your head about it. We already know it’s not the same situation.”
Even though it made me sound heartless, what bothered me the most about the situation with Kim was the uncertainty.
After everything, it was impossible to know whether she was inside.
For the first year or two, I didn’t believe the note; I thought she had left and was being dramatic about it.
But as time went on, she didn’t resurface.
I didn’t know what to think, so I did my best not to think about it.
“I’ll be fine, but I’ll probably triple-check caskets from now on.”
“I probably would, too,” he laughed.
Back at the clubhouse, Sin called the rest of the officers in for church. He filled them in while we waited for Radar to return with Johnny.
“I don’t think Johnny had anything to do with this shit, but we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here,” Sin said.
“Do we know who she is?” Cross asked.
“Not yet, but Glitch is working on it.”
“I haven’t seen her around the club,” Cross said. “I’d remember her.”
“You’re not that lucky.” What the fuck was I doing?
“Looks like you weren’t either.”
“Knock it off,” Sin ordered. “They’re here.”
When they entered the room, Sin gestured for Johnny to take a seat.
“What’s this all about?” Johnny asked.
Sin handed him a printout of the image from our security camera. “Do you recognize her?”
Johnny studied the image for a moment. “No. Never seen her before. Why?”
“Did you verify the body before you delivered it?”
“Yes, of course I did.”
“How?”
“How? I looked at it,” Johnny said incredulously.
“Tell us what you saw.”
Johnny’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “I saw a man who matched the description I’d been given. Why? Was there a problem?”
“Stone found the woman in that picture inside the casket you delivered.”
Johnny shook his head as his eyes widened in shock. “There’s no way. I checked. I wouldn’t do some shit like that to y’all.”
“Tell me about the pickup,” Sin said.
“It was last minute, and they didn’t have the money ready when I got there. That’s why I was late. I told Stone about it,” he explained.
“He did,” I confirmed.
“Did they bring him out to you, or did you go inside and get him?” Sin asked.
“I pulled up behind the shop, and they brought him out to my van.”
“Just him?”
“Yeah. I didn’t check the body bag until I got back, but yeah, it was just him,” Johnny said.
“Then where the fuck did she come from?”
“When you say you checked the body bag, what do you mean?” Juice asked.
“I unzipped it and looked at his face.”
“Just his face?”
“His face and torso.”
I knew it before Juice said it.
“She was at the bottom of the bag.”
“Boss,” Johnny pleaded. “I’m sorry. I was in a hurry because it was a rush job. I should’ve checked better or noticed the extra weight. How can I make this right?”
“So you think she was in the bag when they put it in your van?” Sin asked.
“She had to be. I only stopped at the funeral home to put the bag in a casket and pick up the paperwork in case I got pulled over before I drove here. I swear, Boss, I had no idea.”
“Relax,” Sin said. “You’ve been working for us for years, and we’ve never had a problem. But this is the first time we’ve done business with them.”
Johnny closed his eyes as his shoulders sagged.
“We’ll have one of the prospects drive you back,” Sin said.
“Thank you.” Johnny got to his feet and walked toward the door, seemingly eager to leave. He paused and turned back. “Sorry, Boss. Do I need to do anything regarding … whatever-the-fuck this is?”
“Stay alert. We’ll handle the rest.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
“Well,” Sin said as soon as Johnny was gone. “I think we should pay the Wood brothers a visit. Any objections?”
Juice raised his hand. “Not an objection. Can you clarify who’s paying the visit? I don’t think all of us need to go, but I think a few should.”
I almost laughed. Since stepping down and letting his son take over as president, Juice had tried to guide Sin through urgent issues without giving him blatant instructions. I wasn’t sure if the other brothers had noticed, but it was hard to ignore once I had.
Sin nodded in acknowledgment. “Danger and Tomb will go with me to speak with the brothers.”
“And me,” I said.
“And you if you’re feeling up to it.”
It didn’t matter how I felt; she jumped out at me. I was going.
* * *
When we walked into Wood Pawn, the brothers seemed surprised to see us, but that quickly changed.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Tate demanded.
“This is not how we do business,” Nate added.
“That’s why we’re here. Because of how you do business,” Sin said and slapped the picture of the girl on the counter. “She was in the body bag with Glenn. We don’t offer two-for-ones.”
Tate grabbed the picture and briefly glanced at it before passing it to Nate. Nate shook his head and crumpled the paper into a ball. “Never seen her before. I suggest you look elsewhere.”
Crossing his arms, Sin stared at Tate for several seconds. “You expect me to believe that?”
“Yeah,” Tate said, crossing his arms to match Sin.
Sin nodded once and turned to leave. We wordlessly followed him outside and got in the truck.
“They’re lying. And as soon as we have proof, they’re dead.”
“What about the girl?” I asked.
“We need to figure out who she is and find her. I want to know what she knows.”
* * *
When we arrived at the clubhouse, Glitch was waiting for us in the common room. “I’ve got an ID on the girl.”
“Church!” Sin yelled.
Once everyone was seated around the table, Sin nodded to Glitch. “Tell us what you found.”
“The girl’s name is Whitney Carlson. She’s twenty-nine years old and lives on the west side of Palmetto Harbor with a roommate, Stephanie Hackman. She dated Glenn Warner for three years, but they broke up last year. I haven’t found any direct ties between her and the Wood brothers, but—”
“Speaking of the Wood brothers,” Sin interrupted, “they said they’d never seen Whitney before and denied putting her in the body bag. We know that’s bullshit, but we need proof. We need to find her and find out what she knows.”
“I’ll go to the house,” I volunteered.
Sin paused and gave me an odd look. “You need to see Stitch.”
“I’m good, Prez,” I assured him. “And I’m the only one who’s seen her in person. I should go.”
“Fine. Stone and Tomb will go to her house. Do we know where she works?”
“Not yet,” Glitch said. “She was employed as a tattoo artist at Prickers until they closed a few months ago. I haven’t found anything about where she’s worked since then.”
“What about her car?” Sin asked.
Glitch shook his head. “I can’t find one currently registered to her. I was gonna tell you earlier. Her information isn’t easy to find. I don’t know if that’s intentional or coincidental, but it’s taking me longer than usual to locate things.”
“Stone and Tomb, go to the house. Glitch, continue searching. The rest of you, stay at the clubhouse and be ready to go when new information is available,” Sin ordered.
Tomb nudged me with his elbow. “We can take my truck.”
“Thanks, man.” My headache was tolerable, but I was exhausted and didn’t feel like driving.
After getting the directions from Glitch, Tomb drove us to Whitney’s address. She lived on the west side of Palmetto Harbor in a ranch-style house that was larger than I expected for two people. It was situated on a corner lot with a fenced backyard.
Tomb parked down the street so we were facing the house. “Can you hand me the binoculars under your seat?”
“Yeah,” I said, leaning forward to get them. “After I use them.” I scanned what I could see of the house and yard before passing the binoculars to Tomb. “I didn’t see shit.”
After several minutes of looking, he agreed. “I don’t think anyone’s home.”
“Did you see cameras?”
“Yeah. They’ve got one at the front door and one on the front corner of the garage.”
“If one of us walks down and comes up from the back, we can look through the windows in the garage door to see if any cars are parked inside without being seen on their cameras.”
“I’ll go. If she’s there, she might recognize you if she sees you.”
“Good point.” While I waited in the truck, I kept a watch on our surroundings, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Whitney’s eyes—in the image from our security camera and when I saw them in the casket.
Both times, her eyes were filled with terror.
Based on that alone, I didn’t think we would find her sitting at home waiting for something to happen, but we had to check.
Tomb returned a few minutes later. “Garage is empty.”
“Yeah, I thought it would be,” I sighed. “I guess we should get comfortable.”
“Fuck. I knew I should’ve brought snacks.”
“I could eat. You wanna have something delivered?”
“To the truck?”
“Why the fuck not? We’ve gotta eat.”
It was a good thing we ordered food, because we sat there for hours watching Whitney’s house before Sin sent prospects to replace us.