When the team played an exceptional game, Ben would often linger in the dugout to wind down, but today, he hurried to the locker room. Like a love sick puppy dog, he was eager to see Anna’s reply to his last text. He was disappointed to see that she hadn’t responded. Instead, he had ten missed calls from Tom and a voicemail.
He clicked on the voicemail icon and pressed the phone to his ear.
Ben, it's Tom. Sorry to bug you during a game, but we have some serious business to attend to. I won’t go into detail on the phone, but we need to talk right away. Don’t call. I’ll be at your house. See you soon.
The tone in Tom’s voice was something he had never heard before. The man he had come to know as a carefree, never-let-anything-bother-him kind of guy, sounded spooked and unusually concerned.
Ben decided against harassing Anna for not responding to his text. There was obviously something preventing her from contacting him. Luckily, he didn’t have to worry. If anything had happened, Tom would have voiced his distress code to alert him of a situation.
He wanted to call her to hear her voice, but he opted against it. Something was amiss and he was eager to see what it was. So, instead of taking his time in the locker room as he usually would, Ben rushed through his normal routine and raced towards his house.
He arrived to find his home in complete chaos. The number of men on his property had doubled in the short time he was gone and not one of them wore an expression of contentment. Something was definitely wrong. Ben walked up the steps to the front door and it swung open, revealing Tom.
“Tom!” he growled. “What the hell is going on?”
Tom, unfazed by the tone in Ben’s voice, turned and hollered over his shoulder. “Follow me.”
Ben slammed the door and trailed close behind Tom. He scanned his surroundings, hoping Anna would appear, but was disappointed to find her nowhere in sight. It wasn’t until he reached the kitchen that he found her and her best friend, Karlie, silently sitting in the breakfast nook.
Their eyes met and he saw fear in them. It was something he wasn’t expecting to see. It took him by surprise when she flew to his side and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Can someone please tell me what’s going on here?”
It was Karlie who broke into the silence. “I’d like to know the same damn thing. We were told not to leave the kitchen until further notice because of a dead body that was found outside the gates.” She took a sip from her wine glass as if she didn’t have a care in the world after making that comment.
“I’m sorry. I must have heard you wrong. Did you just say dead body?”
Wine to lips, Karlie nodded.
“Tom, now is the time for you to enlighten me of this evening’s apparent festivities.”
Anna continued to cling to Ben’s arm as he joined Tom and Karlie at the table.
“As Karlie said, we did discover a body just outside the property.” Tom glared at Karlie. She rolled her eyes and waved her hand in the air.
“Do we have an identity of the person?” Ben asked.
“I do, but you’re not going to like it.”
The way Tom glanced to Anna nervously, Ben knew he had nothing but bad news.
* * *
Tom took a deep breath before answering. “I believe it’s someone that Anna knows.”
Anna quirked an eyebrow at Tom. “Me?”
He nodded once. “The woman was a Beth Traverse. We have her linked to you.”
Everyone looked at Anna who sat there momentarily paralyzed.
“Wait… What?” Anna blinked rapidly and knitted her brows together. “Are you telling me that the naked body found out there today was Beth?”
Tom nodded.
“As in Beth, my boss, Beth?” she asked again. She searched her brain for an explanation but found none.
Tom’s expression softened before he responded. “I’m sorry for your loss, Anna.”
“That’s impossible. I just saw her earlier today.” She shook her head a couple times. Anna couldn’t wrap her brain around the thought that Beth was dead.
“Are you sure it’s her? Like one-hundred-percent positive?”
Tom sighed. “I know you’re having a hard time understanding this, Anna. But it was, without a doubt, Beth Traverse. Dental records proved it and her daughter identified her.”
Guilt began to fill her body to the core. When she left the office earlier that day, Anna had wished Beth was dead. The woman was so bitter and cynical, she deserved no less than to be tortured until her last breath. But they were all just thoughts and nothing she ever wanted to actually happen. Her whole world had come crashing around her when Beth had fired her, so she found it hard to think positively.
Her eyes filled with tears and an errant one trickled down her cheek. Anna swiped at it before saying, “She fired me today.”
“She did what?” Ben spoke up.
“She fired me as soon as I got there this morning, claiming that my work ethic was suffering and that I wasn’t being much of a team player anymore.”
“Shit, Anna.” Ben wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her close before kissing her on the top of her head. “I’m sorry,” he murmured in her ear.
Ben eyed Tom. “Do we know what happened to her? Why was she killed and brought all the way out here?”
He raised his eyebrows. “It may not be a good idea to have this conversation in front of the women.”
Anna raised her hand and shot Tom a look to let him know she meant business. “You will most certainly not be having that conversation without us! I may not have liked Beth that much, but the woman I’ve known for years is dead and I’d like to know why.”
Tom gave a hesitant glance to Ben and he nodded. “If you insist,” he replied.
“I insist.” Anna leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling unsure if she wanted to know or not. Before she had time to change her mind, Tom spoke.
“Beth was murdered.”
Anna and Karlie both gasped. She had already assumed it was murder because naked bodies didn’t just turn up outside a person’s house unless it was foul play. It wasn’t until someone had said it out loud that it became a real situation.
“Whoever did this,” Tom continued, “was a spineless bastard. The poor woman was stabbed repeatedly in the gut before her throat was cut to spill what was left of her blood.”
“Uhh,” Ben began before clearing his throat. “You said she was found naked.” It was more of a statement than a question. Anna wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the details but was glad Ben had said something. She wasn’t brave enough to ask Tom to continue even though she needed to hear his words.
Tom frowned. “There was evidence of sexual activity. Rape was ruled out since there was no sign of struggle. No bruising or tearing. We found semen in the vaginal canal. It appears that Beth was stabbed while they were having intercourse.”
The man in question wasn’t just a spineless bastard; he was a sadistic, perverse piece of shit, and if Anna ever had the privilege of meeting the man, she’d be too happy to repay the unkindness he showed Beth.
The room fell silent for some time. It was Karlie who felt the need to break the silence and ask the much needed question. “Am I the only one who’s curious to know if this is associated with the crap that’s been happening around here? I mean, Anna has been threatened and Ben was almost killed!”
“I’m with Karlie,” Anna agreed. “What are the odds that Beth was found murdered on the outskirts of this property just days after Ben’s car had been sabotaged?”
“It’s a message for sure,” Tom said, nodding. “While some of my men were scanning the property, they found evidence that someone was hiding in three different trees on the property. Broken branches and cigarette butts were the clear links of all three locations.”
Ben slammed a fist on the table, causing everyone to jump. “Dammit, Tom! How is that even possible? We have cameras everywhere!”
Tom shook his head. “Whoever this person is, he knew exactly where all the cameras were and how to avoid them. The trees he hid in? There is a five second time frame where the lens is not pointed at them throughout the day. This person schooled themselves on the security system and used it to their advantage.” He paused. “Besides your car, we haven’t seen anything amiss on the property, so we are assuming he has been watching the house.”
“What do you mean, besides my car?” Ben asked the question Anna had meant to ask. But now that it was out in the open, she was terrified of the answer.
“This person is most likely responsible for causing the damage to your car.”
“What’s the evidence?” Anna blurted out.
“DNA from the cigarette’s matched the DNA found on Ben’s car, which happens to be parked in the exact same spot every single day. The security camera sees it but only the front end. If someone knows how the security system works, they would know where to be to get the job done without being seen.”
“What about Anna’s house?” Ben glanced at Anna when he asked the question.
Her house? He mentioned that someone was installing cameras but left out the part where he was sending a team to examine her house. She wanted to scream at him and tell him that it was inappropriate to send men into her home without permission, but she resisted. Instead, she clenched her teeth and bit the inside of her cheek to keep from speaking her mind.
“We got nothing there. Not even a fingerprint.”
“I’m confused,” Karlie spoke up. “If you have DNA evidence, why haven’t you found the person responsible?”
Tom waved his hand in the air. “Because he’s never been caught.”
“Still not following. Don’t you have his identity?”
He shook his head. “His DNA is in the system. The guy has been linked to a few other robberies, but because he isn’t in the system, we can’t match his identity to anyone.”
Anna sniffled and another tear escaped before she could stop it. Luckily, the man who had professed his love to her was there beside her, wiping it away. The gesture seemed so intimate, it made her want to sob more.
Instead, she gave him a teary smile and shook her head. “I still can’t believe it. I didn’t like the woman very much, but I never would have wished her dead.” She sniffled again. “Did you say her daughter knows?”
Tom nodded.
“I bet Tiffany is heartbroken. I should send her a text with my condolences.”
“I don’t think so, Anna,” Tom said, quickly squashing that idea.
Heat filled her face. “You can’t tell me what to do,” she replied defensively. She wasn’t about to let some man she hardly knew tell her that she couldn’t reach out to Beth’s daughter.
Ben placed a hand on Anna’s. “Love, he’s not trying to tell you what to do.”
There it was. Love. It was a word he had expressed to her, but he hadn’t announced in front of other people yet. Amongst everything going on, her body found a way to be affected by his words.
“You have to understand that no one knows of Beth’s death besides her daughter. If you send your condolences, she’ll know something is up. The last thing we need is for her to know that you are one of the occupants of the home where her body was found.” Ben gave her hand a slight squeeze.
He was right and she hated it. Anna closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “So now what?”
Tom shrugged one of his shoulders. “Until we can get a handle on the situation, we’ll up the security on the property and no one will be able to leave the house without at least two men with them.”
“Does that mean for Karlie as well?” Anna asked. She was now a resident of the house and wanted to make sure she was just as safe.
“By the way, Ben,” she began, “Karlie will be staying here for a couple weeks.”
He quirked an eyebrow at her. “Is that right?” A mischievous smile spread across his face.
She knew he wouldn’t mind, but a part of her was still nervous to tell him. As usual, he didn’t disappoint. He was his amazing self, as always. She was about to respond with a witty retort when her phone vibrated. Anna glanced at the screen and her stomach sank. It was a text from Beth’s daughter, Tiffany. She pressed a hand to her mouth.
“What is it?” Ben sounded concerned.
“Tiffany.” She slid the phone to him so that he could read the message. “She has informed me of Beth’s death and would like to see me at the office tomorrow.”
“You’ll go,” Tom informed. “We need to see if there’s anything else she knows that we don’t already know.”
“What makes you think she’ll confide in me?”
“She may or may not. It doesn’t hurt to try. You up for the task?”
Anna’s stomach sank. How was she supposed to see the woman knowing full well that her mother was murdered by someone she probably knew? She nodded and prayed for a positive outcome.