Chapter 76
Though the clouds have parted, the sky is dark. The moonlight doing little to aid the treacherous trek down to Shantel’s contorted body.
Night has closed in around Bleakcrest, the wispy clouds moving slowly across the stars, blanketing the area in thick shadows. The heavy rain has made the grass slick, the path down the hill now slippery mud. In front of me, Kyle eats shit while leading the way for the third time tonight.
After the storm cleared, he was going to go hit up the liquor store for him and Bucky.
The team was going to play a relaxed game of poker, having converted the previous formal dining room into a game room.
A black felt pool table now takes up the space where the large dining table used to sit.
Three dart boards hang along the far wall, a foosball table, air hockey table, Duck Hunt machine, and other immersive shooter video games lining the other two walls.
Vintage Pac-man and Ms. Pac-man machines sit against the back wall of the lobby, the large poker table taking up the centre of the room.
Its octagonal shape is the first thing you see when you walk through the door.
At least it’s grandiose. Black high back chairs, matching the black felt, and black and white poker chips.
Kyle sure knows how to spend my fucking money.
I’d complain if he didn’t have such damn good taste.
The dark wood and colour scheme makes all the pristine white from before tolerable.
“Son of a bitch,” he curses, righting himself on his feet as they slide around unsteady beneath him.
His motocross boots offer little grip against the shitty terrain.
We look like a bunch of incompetent drunks trying to safely navigate our way down the cliff’s edge on the far side of the property, my Chucks offering no help as I slip and land on my ass, taking Kyle down with me.
Grunting as the impact shoots up my spine, Kyle death-glares me. “Seriously!”
This is not the time to laugh, so I suppress it with every fibre of my being. But he looks fucking hilarious. Soaking wet, dripping muddy water, dirt speckled across his face.
Looking over the edge, Shantel’s body is perched on a ledge, inches away from a deadly drop to the sharp rocks below the crashing waves.
“What was she doing out here?” I direct to Kyle. “I thought she was leaving after a perimeter sweep?”
“I don’t know. Bucky’s inside combing through the security footage again.”
“Shit,” I huff, trying to look for a feasible way down to her location. “Did you call the cops?”
“No, we were waiting for you.”
“What does Bucky want to do?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Let’s get her inside, and go from there.
I’ll pass her up to you.” On the drive over, I realized the police may not be as necessary as I thought in my distraught state.
While I don’t want them getting eyes on my woman, I know Maximus had them in his pocket.
Paying them off to turn a blind eye to his dealings with threats and fat stacks of cash.
Now that I’ve assumed control of the empire, I suppose the police could bend to my will as well.
Some things will have to be done on the up-and-up as Bucky’s parents think their kids had stand-up terms of employment.
But depending on the findings, I could push the cops into a much less thorough investigation.
Or, have them find out all they can so I can allow Bucky retribution, if there’s any to be had.
Kyle nods. “Be careful. It’s slick.”
Since my clothes are quickly becoming unsalvageable, I crawl to the steepest part, starting my descent to Shantel’s corpse.
Kyle waits above as I wish I had a tether to something solid. It's not a far drop to Shantel, but the ledge is small and her body takes up most of the free space. So, one wrong shift of my weight, and I could end up accidentally throwing myself into the ocean.
As I lower my body over the side, Kyle holds my wrists with an unwavering strength I didn’t know he possessed.
My foot slips from its hold. Shards of sandstone and pebbles tumble down the rock face, plinking around Shantel’s body or careening down into the darkness.
Kyle maintains his steadying grasp on me, not so much as a slip in his grip on my wrists as I scramble to find a secure foothold.
Moving with me, Kyle hangs half over the steep ridge, content to be flung into the treacherous waters right alongside me if I go down.
“You’re almost there,” he grunts.
How he can tell, I don’t know. I can’t see shit with my hair hanging around my face and the moonlight appearing and disappearing so fast.
The tip of my high top scrapes the solid rock beneath it, and I drop the few remaining inches, landing with my feet on either side of Shantel’s unnaturally twisted arm.
“Here, take this,” Bucky’s voice calls out.
My gaze shoots up, squinting from the bright light now pooling around me. The plastic yellow flashlight comes flying at my face, and I manage to catch it before it pelts me in the eye.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” I grumble, annoyed with what just transpired. “And stop shining that light in my damn eyes.”
“Sorry,” Bucky concedes, moving the bright beam of light away. I know he’s just trying to get a good look at his dearly departed sister, but the last thing I need is those little floating lights messing with my depth perception.
Kneeling between the rock face and the corpse, I check for a pulse I know I won’t find.
Her skin has little give, rigor mortis already setting in and stiffening the smaller muscles.
Her limbs still move, though rigidly. She’s been dead at least four hours by my guess, maybe a bit longer.
I’m no medical examiner, but it does pay to know little things like this in my business.
It helps you narrow down a time of death on your missing dealer that was just found with a bullet to the brain in the bushes at the local dog park.
“Anything?” Bucky asks.
Opting to not reply, I slowly and carefully roll Shantel from her face down position onto her back.
With the small flashlight, I examine her for any obvious wounds.
Her cloudy eyes are jarring, but the small space has me resisting the urge to jerk back.
“Did you see anything on the security footage?” I call up.
“Not really, her back was to the camera. She…she gripped her chest…” Buck’s words falter, diminishing in volume, until I can’t make out what he says over the waves.
“She just fell,” Kyle finishes. “More like collapsed. Then fell.”
Looking over her chest, I see nothing. No obvious wound. No blood. No gunshot. The only gash is to her head, and there’s minimal blood. Which probably means she was dead already when she fell, or very close to it.
Shantel’s skin is slick when I lift her from the rocks. The fresh rain makes it near impossible to get a secure grip on her corpse to heft it upwards so Kyle and Bucky can receive it.
“You guys got some rope or something up there?”
“Yeah, it’s in my pack right alongside my bear spray and rock climbing gear.
” Kyle’s trying to lift Bucky’s despair, but it’ll never work.
I’ve only ever seen that look on his face once before—when the news of his brother’s accident broke.
It took him weeks to leave his room, and even longer to bounce back from the grief.
Though, he’s never fully returned to his previous self.
I’m worried this will further draw him inwards, or he’ll pull away all together.
“Fuck, link your belts together then and toss one end down to me.”
I hear the clanking of the clasps as I start to undo mine, looping it around under Shantel’s armpits.
“How do you even think this stuff up? Is it all those survival shows you watch?” Kyle questions.
“They definitely don’t hurt.”
“Heads up!” Kyle calls out, Bucky’s silence unnerving me to the core. The end of the makeshift rope comes over the side, longer than anticipated.
“Hey, which one of you weirdos was wearing two belts?”
“Bucky! It was Bucky! He thought it looked cool. Kinda hardcore.”
Kyle’s a shitty liar. He’s had those black and purple studded belts since high school. It went with his scene aesthetic hair flip, and snake bite lip piercings.
“Bucky?”
“Yeah?” he croaks.
“Slap that liar for me.”
A loud crack sounds through the otherwise silent night, followed by Kyle’s “Hey, not so fucking hard, man.”
Momentarily, I’m glad Bucky has a lighthearted distraction, because shit’s about to get real fucking dark.
Kneeling, I lift Shantel over my shoulder. Attempting to balance her weight evenly while I secure the end of Kyle’s ancient studded belt to my expensive black leather one.
“Move quickly, I don’t know how long this will hold!” I call up.
“Ready?” Kyle hollers.
“Yeah!” I reply, aiding their raising of the body with my arms until I can no longer reach.
Back in the control room, Bucky cues up the security footage for Kyle and I before leaving to sit with his sister’s body and await the police.
For his parent’s sake, Bucky decided to call them. Claiming he owes it to them for not protecting her, and Shantel deserves justice, whatever that may be.
Kyle presses ‘play’ and the footage rolls across multiple boxes on the screen. Shantel is caught from different angles leaving from the main door, and walking counter clockwise around the complex outside the perimeter fence.
“Why was she outside the property line?”
“Bucky thinks she was looking for signs of that Karson guy. Apparently, they talked about him and Rose’s sister yesterday.”
Not that I’m suspicious of my team, but there’s absolutely nothing Shantel needs to know about Rose or Chelsea.
“Why?”
“Bucky’s exhausted. He’s just too much of a pussy to tell you. His ego won’t let him give up either. He wants to find Karson, no matter what it takes. You need to tell him it’s okay to back off for a bit, especially now.”