THEY REACHED THE parking lot and Dominic insisted on walking her to her car. “I will be fine,” she argued. “I’m just going home to get some work done.”
“That’s great. I’m just going to make sure you make it safely. That guy at the restaurant was not playing around and I’m not taking any chances.” His voice was as firm as the grip he had with his arm around her waist.
They have valet parking. I’ll just wait here while they bring it around,” she countered.
“I’ll wait with you then.” He showed no signs of letting her go even as she handed her ticket to the valet.
They stood together in the darkness under the canopy and waited. Dominic looked down at her and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Do you have any idea how exquisitely beautiful you are?”
“Laying this on a little thick, aren’t you?” she asked raising her eyebrow. “We both know this little fling is over when the—”
“Ma’am.” The valet came running back up without her car. “I’m afraid we have a problem.”
“What do you mean? Where’s my car?” Olivia asked, alarm raising her voice a full octave. Olivia didn’t have any close family, she didn’t even have a cat. What she did have was a spotless midnight blue Audi.
“Ma’am, calm down. Your tires are flat. We can call a tow truck for you if you would like,” he offered.
“Wait, you’re saying more than one tire is flat?” Dominic asked his tone darkened. “Olivia, that sounds intentional. We need to call the police and file a report.”
“Or I ran over something on our little trip to the swamp.” She couldn’t believe that anyone would deliberately try to destroy her car.
They called a tow truck and followed the attendant to her poor car. The Audi reminded her of a seventy-year-old boob tattoo all sad and deflated. All four tires were completely flat.
“Unless you were driving in a parking lot full of razor blades I would say someone slashed your tires.” Dominic was seething. “Do you have cameras for this lot?” he demanded. “We are going to need to see the tapes.”
“I’m sorry, sir, this part of the lot doesn’t have cameras.” The attendant took a step back.
“We better call this in.” Olivia shook her head. She had never been the victim of vandalism before. She wondered if it had to do with a case or if it was random. Dominic waited with her while until the police and the tow truck arrived.
“Let me take you home,” he offered when she had finished the paperwork.
“On that?” she said motioning to his bike. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding. I can just call a taxi or fucking Uber.” Olivia pulled out her cell to make the call. Dominic put his hand over hers and pushed the phone down.
“Trust me, Olivia,” he said low and pulled her close. “For once just let go of all that pain you hold inside and trust me.”
Olivia had never been on a motorcycle. Until that moment she had no desire to ever be on one. But now, as she stood next to this chiseled mystery all she wanted was to pull back another layer and see what lie beneath. “Okay,” she whispered barely able to believe the words as she said them.
The grin that spread across his face would have lit up Manhattan. “Come,” he said before she had a chance to change her mind and he secured her purse and keys in the small compartment on the back. Carefully he fitted his helmet on her head and secured it. He climbed onto the bike and started the engine. The roar caused Olivia to jump. He backed out of the space and then held his hand out for her to take.
Olivia hesitated she should go back inside and call a cab or stay with Piper but the look in his eyes was more than she could resist. She trembled as she reached out and took his hand. Her head spun with fear and excitement. He helped her climb on behind him and they were off.
They rode through town but instead of going to her apartment he turned toward the coast. The moon shone on the Atlantic and sparkled like a million diamonds on the waves. The cool breeze off the ocean was magnified by the speed of the bike and Olivia felt like she was flying. She held tightly to his back and closed her eyes. In that moment the world was perfect.
OLIVIA WOKE WITH a start. She was a little disoriented at first by the blaring sound that jarred her from sleep. What the hell was that? It was still too dark to be her alarm. After a few foggy moments she realized it was her phone.
“Olivia Hastings here,” she mumbled into the phone.
“Olivia, this is Detective Shaver. They found another body that may be linked to our case. Dr. Mattis requested you and bug boy to come to the scene. We need to meet at her office first for debriefing.”
“I’ll call agent Kain and be right there.” Olivia hung up. She was wide awake now and glanced at the clock. 6:12 a.m. Nothing like getting the day started early. One of the beautiful things about living so close to her office was that Olivia could easily get up at seven and still be to work by eight. Of course her low maintenance morning routine didn’t hurt either.
She called Dominic but got his voicemail so she left a message to meet her at the coroner’s office. She dressed quickly and grabbed her bag. She tried Dominic again and still went straight to voicemail so she left to go to the debriefing.
As she pulled into the parking lot of the morgue, Olivia immediately knew something was wrong. Two uniformed officers, Detective Shaver, Mr. Davis, and Dr. Mattis were waiting. She looked around but there was no sign of Dominic’s bike.
“Another body was discovered but we need to wear protective gear to go to the scene. Two officers have already been taken to the hospital. Olivia, have you ever trained on wearing a hazmat suit or using a respirator? If not, honey, you need to stay at the staging area,” Dr. Mattis instructed.
Everyone else seemed to be completely comfortable with what was about to happen. Olivia was not about to sit and wait. She looked from Dr. Mattis to Detective Shaver. “I am experienced with a respirator, I am a certified scuba diver,” she said, slightly exaggerating the truth. It had been a very long time since she had even seen one. In college Grace, Piper and Olivia had gotten certified during their summer on the beach. Surely it was like riding a bike once she got it on everything would come back to her.
“Where is bug boy . . .” Detective Shaver started to ask and Dr. Mattis shot him a glaring look. “Er . . . Ugh . . . I mean Special Agent Kain.”
“I called him twice on the way here,” Olivia remarked but I haven’t heard from him.
“Well where is he staying? He is definitely going to need to see this first hand,” Dr. Mattis questioned. “Try him again.”
Olivia dialed again. Where was he? She left another message and then tried the front desk. They rang his room. Still no answer. “Last night he said he was coming here to process some more of the samples. That’s the last time I saw him,” she told them and tried not to be worried. Maybe he just went for some breakfast and left his phone in the room.
Just then Detective Shaver got a call. He was pacing back and forth as he talked. His eyebrows knitted into a worried row. “One of the officers from the scene reported that the victim was on the surveillance footage from the Saltine last night. That’s why they alerted me. The officer was one of my guys on that detail.”
Olivia’s heart stopped. “Man or woman?” she asked. A deep chill set over her skin.
“They didn’t say,” Shaver answered his eyes wide. He took his phone back out and called his team at the hospital back. Every second that passed felt like a fear drenched hour. Olivia took out her cell. She started to call Dominic again but stopped. Piper! She hadn’t heard from her since last night either. Her fingers felt like lead balloons as she tried to dial. God, Piper had to be okay. Olivia knew she should have stayed with her until she was on that plane. The phone rang and rang. Please, God let her be safely on that plane.
They loaded their equipment and multiple cameras. Olivia rode with Detective Shaver and Dr. Mattis who filled her in on the way. The body was spotted in a large agricultural field about twenty minutes away. The problem was, that it was spotted by a plane that was dumping pesticide over the field. The first two officers who responded began having respiratory difficulty as soon as they reached the body. They left the scene immediately but were already in significant distress by the time they made it back to their cruiser. They had been rushed to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and were in critical condition at this point.
“Pretty amazing that you can eat food that has a chemical that strong sprayed on it,” Olivia observed as they drove. She kept checking her phone. Nothing from Dominic or Piper. Though they were driving with lights and sirens, the twenty-minute drive felt like two days. Rows of corn and soybeans stretched out as far as the eye could see. The detective’s sedan finally turned off the highway and bounced along a secondary road. They left a cloud of dust in their wake. Olivia’s cell service was starting to falter. With two bars left she called Dominic again and gave him directions to the staging area. Up ahead Olivia could already spot the decon tents being set up at the staging area beside a large corn field. Other officers were already on site taking pictures of tire tracks along the edge of the dirt road. Another team was setting up drones to scan the field.
They parked and walked up to the staging area. Olivia’s cell service showed no bars at all now. Her heart raced and ached at the same time. Who were they going to find in the middle of all that godforsaken corn. Mental images of her sister and Gwen kept flashing through her mind. Would Piper or Dominic be added to the collection? Olivia stood in the debriefing and watched them demonstrate the DuPont Tychem 10000 Commander EX Level A suit that was fully encapsulating. The suit was rear entry with gas tight zippers and two exhaust valves. They were encouraged to maintain slow relaxed breathing to maximize the amount of time an oxygen tank would last. Olivia’s tank weighed about fifty pounds and would last forty-five minutes to an hour. The suit would alarm when she had five minutes of oxygen left. The instructor stressed the importance of being at the staging area for decon at that time. They would have to undergo a series of showers before the suit could be removed. Since it was air tight without the respirator they could suffocate in the suit. Once in the suit they would not be able to hear each other so they had to learn basic hand signals for the field.
Each team member dressing had an officer helping them get dressed. Olivia stood still while Officer Johnson strapped the tank on her back. She glanced around and looked for Dominic. She would have given anything to see that motorcycle roaring up the road. She took one last breath of fresh air and placed the respirator in her mouth. Once situated Johnson began to zip her up. It was like being sealed in a plastic bag. She looked around at the team. Detective Shaver’s brows were set in a determined line but his eyes had a hint of fear in them. Each one was armed with a camera and the tools they needed to process the scene. Olivia was not a crime scene investigator so she would only be there to take pictures and stay out of the way. As they started into the field Olivia took one last look toward the road and then at the empty suit that sat waiting for Dominic. Please, God, don’t let him already be here.
The suit was heavy and restrictive. Olivia felt like an astronaut on a planet where the gravity was ten times our own. They walked single file down one of the aisles created by the corn. Every step a colossal effort that took her closer to finding the truth. Someone she had been with last night was lying dead in this field. She hoped it was Jake or one of his colleagues. Ahead they were approaching an area where there seemed to be a clearing in the corn. Dr. Mattis and the crime scene team signaled them to stop. She took photographs at every angle. Olivia was last in the line and could not see. Dr. Mattis moved to the right and the crime scene officers entered the space to the left. The closer she moved to the clearing the more her heart began to race. Slow your breathing. She reminded herself. The last thing she wanted to do was run out of air and suffocate in this field. Detective Shaver moved into the edge of the clearing and for the first time, she could see part of the victim. Her heart leapt in her chest and she broke out into a sweat. She brought her camera up to take a picture of the slender foot of a woman lying next to a purple sandal.
Olivia forced several slow breaths through the respirator. She could not compromise the crime scene. You can do this. She tried to calm herself. Two more steps and she would know for sure. Just then she heard a commotion behind her and turned to see the missing yellow suit walking toward her. Dominic. She didn’t know where he had been but she was fucking thankful to see him now. She waited until he caught up to move. When he reached her she stepped back and let him go in first. He would actually be collecting samples. She was just an observer and she was afraid to move forward. Once she saw the victim’s face it would be final. It would be real and she knew there was no going back.
Please, God. She prayed as Dominic passed her and she had no choice but to move the last few steps. One step. She took a deep breath from the regulator. Two. Oh. My. God. The body of one of the Lambda Sigma Delta girls lay mangled in a pile of dead bugs. Olivia noted the same ligature marks and defensive wounds that she had seen on Gwen. But the bugs. She was covered in them. Fat little grubs like Dominic had retrieved from the other scene. The kind he said didn’t show up until day twenty. They were everywhere on day one but they all seemed to be dead. Was someone playing games with them? The girl’s pale blue eyes stared lifelessly into the sky. Olivia hated that she had never even asked her name. She was wearing the same lavender printed dress from the night before and one purple sandal. Just above her left breast was the sorority pin that Olivia had noticed at Saltine. Wait. She looked closer. The small gold shield was surrounded by tiny pearls and rubies. But the ruby on the top right was missing.
Olivia remembered the day it had disappeared. Grace had talked her into coming to Rhode Island to go horseback riding. Fucking horses. Olivia was more of a turtle or goldfish person. They had gone on a trail ride to the beach with Morning Star Horse Farm. Olivia still remembered freaking out while Grace loved it. She said she loved the freedom. They rode until the sun was setting and stood together in the waves to watch it disappear. On the way back something had spooked Grace’s horse and she fell off. A ruby in the sand, gone forever.
It couldn’t be. Anyone could have lost a ruby. Olivia took another step and bumped into Dominic almost knocking him into the area they had roped off for the initial phase. Everyone stopped and looked at her. She couldn’t stop staring at the date on the pin. 2006, the year her sister should have graduated. The year she died.
This girl would have been ten years old then. She tried to point at the pin. But no one seemed to understand what she was trying to say. Dominic was busy collecting bugs and taking pictures. She tried to motion again and Detective Shaver stared at her like she was a dancing monkey. Fuck they hadn’t made hand signals for this corpse is wearing your murdered twin sister’s fucking sorority pin. Olivia started to hyperventilate. Each breath she sucked in from the respirator burned in her lungs. She needed to get out of there. What the fuck was she thinking coming out here in the first place? Her breaths got shorter and her heart raced right out of her chest. She had to get out of here.
Her head tried to tell her that it could be someone else’s. This could all be a big coincidence. But her heart knew better. That pin belonged to Grace, and the same hands that stole the life of her beautiful sister had killed this poor girl too. Olivia shuddered as she realized the killer had stood in this very spot. Had he held on to this little piece of her beloved sister all this time? Olivia’s heart broke all over again. Why? Why now?
All of a sudden, a very loud alarm echoed throughout her suit. She had used too much oxygen! Olivia began to full on panic. She only had five minutes of air left in this plastic coffin. Ripping it off now would expose her to the chemicals in the field; she had to get back and go through decontamination before it was too late. She turned and started trying to run back down the row but she was still over a hundred yards from the decon area. Her legs felt like massive anchors making each step a monumental chore. The harder she tried the more air she sucked in and the suit began to expand and contract with each breath. She trudged on closer to the staging area but her fingers and toes began to tingle. Do not pass out! She was running out of air. She could see a group of people in suits waiting for her at the end of the row to start the decontamination process. They were still so far away. She wanted to rip off that fucking suit. It closed in around her like an anaconda threatening to squeeze the life out of her.
She was still about twenty yard away when she stumbled. Olivia’s head swam. She felt herself falling and grasped at corn stalks. This was it. With the force of a freight train someone hit her from behind and scooped her up. Olivia’s body crumpled in his arms. Through the thick plastic she could see Dominic in his yellow suit. He was looking straight ahead and running at full speed. The alarm continued to blare as Olivia began to fade in and out of consciousness. Her lungs were on fire and her eyes felt like they were going to pop out of her head. Her mind flashed to Grace. With the ligature marks and petechiae in her lifeless eyes. This is how Grace felt as the life was choked out of her.
The world started to fade just as they reached the decon area. Olivia felt water hitting the suit. Dominic was shaking her and trying to say something but all she could hear was that damn alarm and the pounding of her heart.
“Stay. With. Me.” He mouthed as Olivia collapsed in the darkness.