Chapter Nine
Doc held the light steady over the corpse’s face. “That’s Sadie, all right. Dear Lord in Heaven, have mercy on her soul.” He made a sign of the cross.
“Dax?” Jessie rushed up to him, her voice sounding like she was drowning.
He jumped up and held her at arm’s length, shielding her view of the body. “Jessie, I’m so sorry. I’m afraid it’s Sadie.”
“Ohmigod, no.” She tried to step around him, but he blocked her path. “I can’t believe it. I mean, I can b-believe it, but I don’t want it to be true. Are you sure?”
“Doc identified her.”
Her lips firmed, a clear sign she was fighting for control. “How did she die?”
He debated sugar coating the cause of death, but Jessie would be angry when she found out the truth. The bullet had penetrated the skull and lodged in her cheek. “A shot to the back of the head.”
She gasped then bent over a few inches acting as if someone had punched her in the stomach. “Here’s your damned coffee.” She shoved the mug at his chest, but he recognized her anger wasn’t directed at him.
“I’ll take over, sir.” One of the attendants slipped the shovel from Dax’s fingers.
“Thank you.” He turned back to Jessie. “Why don’t I walk you to the car while these men finish up here?” In her emotional state, she’d only get in the way.
She straightened, shot him a focused glare, and then pushed past him to step to the edge of the grave. A strangled cry left her lips, and for a moment, he thought she might become sick viewing the body, but she didn’t.
Instead, she clenched her hands and whipped back around. “I don’t know how they do things in Baltimore, but in Kerry, it’s my duty to stay until Sadie is safely in the medical examiner’s van.”
He gave her a two-fingered salute. It had been a mistake to treat Jessie with anything less than total equality. She was a fine officer. “Understood.”
Dax moved out of the workers’ way, lifted the lid off the hot coffee, and guzzled it. Damn if it didn’t lack that needed kick he was looking for. He took a sniff but detected no aroma. However, on a cold evening, he couldn’t be picky.
“Excuse me, Jess,” one of the attendants said. “We need to move the gurney closer to the body.”
“Jessie, stand by me,” Dax said.
She moved, but it was to the other side of the grave. Perhaps he’d been too patronizing. Hell, he couldn’t help it. He was used to giving orders, being in control, and looking out for everyone.
It took close to half an hour for the two attendants to place the body into the bag and ready the gurney to transport to the van. Except for the scuffling of feet, both human and animal, along with the occasional squeaky wheel, the team marched in silence along the path. Maneuvering down the rocks took skill, but the two attendants handled the chore well. Doc was a bit shaky going down, but Dax couldn’t tell if it was his age or from being upset over Sadie’s death.
When they arrived back at the plant, Jessie went into her deputy mode, directing the men on how they should do their job until one of the attendants took her aside. Dax couldn’t hear what was said, but from her rigid posture, she didn’t like what he told her.
Jessie then began her pacing ritual while the men finished up with Sadie. After Dax cleaned the shovel the best he could and dropped it in the cruiser’s trunk, he pried the field kit from her fingers. She was holding the damned kit so close to her chest he’d have thought she had a million dollars worth of diamonds in there.
In the time it took to dig up Sadie, a fog bank had rolled in, blocking the light from the moon. If he believed in vampires and werewolves, he’d be convinced they’d surely be on the prowl right now. Hell, he could almost hear them baying in the wind.
Dax stowed the kit in the back and then snagged Jessie’s car keys so he could turn on the cruiser’s headlights. The moment the area flooded with light, his shoulders relaxed and his breathing evened out.
When Doc Whitmore and the men had Sadie safely stored inside the medical wagon, he took off. The two men from the hospital followed a minute later, leaving cement dust in their wake.
With her hand blocking the headlight’s glare, Jessie watched the team depart, looking like a child who’d been separated from her mother. Dax stepped toward her, debating whether to offer comfort but decided his embrace wouldn’t be welcome—not this time anyway.
Red glowing taillights eased around the bend and disappeared. Goodbye, Sadie. He wished he’d have met her under better circumstances, but such was life, or rather death.
After being outside for several hours, he was almost immune to the chill that had seeped into his lungs. Odd, he never did like the cold, but tonight he was dead inside and out and barely felt it.
Dax brushed the grime off his pants, kicked the mud from the bottom of his shoes, and then slipped back into the passenger’s seat, letting Jessie deal with the trauma in her own way.
A moment later, she ripped open the driver’s side door and jumped in. Clearly, she was battling her inner demons and probably losing. Despite their talk at the station, she still acted as though Sadie’s murder was her fault somehow. From experience, nothing he could say would change her mind, so he kept quiet, letting her work through the pain.
Jessie threw the car in reverse with a little too much gusto, backed up, and raced out of there. No cars were on the road, yet she took a curve so fast two wheels lifted off the pavement for a second, forcing him to grab onto the dashboard.
“Ah, Jessie. No one’s chasing us.” It wasn’t subtle.
She slowed. “Sorry. I just wanted to get away from there.”
“I can’t blame you.”
Jessie was halfway to town before she spoke again. “Sadie’s death is going to kill Nana, you know.”
She sounded composed, but deep inside she had to be hurting. “I figured. You know, one of the reasons I left the force and went into private investigation was because telling someone a family member was dead, ranked up there with someone shoving a gun in my face.” Not the whole truth, but part, anyway.
She half-smiled. “Thank you.”
At least he hadn’t made the situation worse. For him, he considered it a small victory.
“Before we go home,” she said. “I want to do my rounds at the bar. Do you mind?”
She took being an officer of the law to the extreme, but he figured by checking on the bar, she could avoid telling Margaret about Sadie for a bit longer. In a way, he wished she would break down, as it might help release the anger from her system. “Are you there to check up on the locals or do you plan to have a drink?” He hoped the latter.
Not answering, she gripped the wheel tighter.
* * *
As Jessie drove back to town, a wave of depression almost made her stop and vomit on the roadside, but she swallowed hard to keep down the bile. She still couldn’t believe Sadie was dead. She’d suspected something bad might have happened to Nana’s friend, but she’d wanted to believe Sadie would come breezing back into town with some wild adventure story, like she had so many times before.
This news would break Nana’s heart, just as hers was breaking now.
Jessie glanced over at Dax. He was staring out the side window, seemingly off in his own world. Working in a big city like he did, seeing a dead body was probably no biggie, and she wondered what encountering corpses on a regular basis did to the soul—crush it or make him immune to any caring?
She set aside the horror and concentrated on the road. As they neared town, the traffic picked up, and she sighed. Saturday night was in full swing, and she definitely wasn’t in the mood to deal with any drunks, but keeping her routine would help her regain some control.
She circled past the bar and returned to the south end of town. “Do you mind if we park at my office and walk the few blocks to the Coal Mine?” Not that she had a choice as the parking spaces in between were taken.
“I’m game.”
She thought she saw him wince. Darn. She should probably drop him off in front of the bar given how badly he had been limping, but she bet he wouldn’t appreciate being treated as an invalid. If it had been her, she wouldn’t have wanted special treatment.
Jessie pulled to the curb in front of her office, cut the engine, and stepped out. Fresh, cold air woke her up and helped ease the ache in her belly. Jessie tried to brush off the dried dirt and grass stains from her pants, but she didn’t succeed. Her beige slacks were now ruined. She hoped people wouldn’t take one look at her and think she’d had sex in the forest with Dax—on her knees.
For a brief moment of escapism, Jessie let her mind drift far away from the horror of the night. She bet Dax would be smokin’ hot in the bed department—not that she’d ever find out. Any man with his body and strong hands would surely be amazing at—
“You ever go to the bar just to relax and visit with friends or even enjoy a dance or two?” he asked.
“Huh? Oh, the b-bar. Not really. Clinton and I took turns checking on the place, especially on weekends, since we needed to make sure no one became too out of hand or too drunk to drive home. I didn’t go very often just to have fun.”
“I see.”
That made her sound so lame, but having fun was expensive. Be honest. Fine. It might be that she was afraid to let anyone or anything in. Her desire to live up to the Nash name required all her dedication, though of late she had wondered at what expense?
They walked in silence the rest of the way to the bar. Jessie usually enjoyed looking in the bookstore window and in the small craft shop, but tonight, nothing interested her. Dax’s face remained tense as he held open the door to the Coal Mine Bar. Perhaps seeing Sadie’s body had upset him more than she’d realized.
“Thank you,” she said as she stepped past him.
Body heat and the stench of spilled beer slammed into her the moment she crossed the threshold. Too many people were in here tonight. If the fire chief stopped by, half the town would be out on their asses.
Familiar country music blared from the jukebox. As the couples swung their butts around on the tiny dance floor, a twinge of regret grabbed her. Deep down inside, she wanted a dance partner for life, but to let go like that could alter her too much.
Dax moved behind her. “The place is packed.”
Jessie turned and looked up at him, happy to be talking about facts instead of emotion. “It’s always like this on a Saturday night. There’s not much else to do in Kerry but drink. You should have seen it before the mine closed. I swear there was often a line a mile long to get in here.”
He dropped his gaze and seemed to focus on her face. “Impressive. This actually puts Baltimore to shame.”
Jessie could feel her cheeks burn. Her uncharacteristic reaction to this man was upsetting. She blinked a few times to clear her head, and then looked back at the crowd, hoping, in some small way, she’d have to spend her time using her deputy skills instead of sitting near Dax for the next hour while she mourned Sadie’s loss. Being this close to him took her way out of her comfort zone.
Damn if all the booths and tables weren’t taken. “You mind sitting at the bar?” Jessie yelled over the noise.
“Not at all.”
Two adjacent seats were free, and that in and of itself was a rarity. She was happy they’d found a spot until she realized their arms would touch, and she’d be able to watch the planes of his jaw move in a sexy way, which would send her thoughts where they shouldn’t go.
What had gotten into her tonight? Sadie was dead, which meant her thoughts should only be on her friend and what this would do to Nana—not on being comforted by a man she barely knew. This was not the place to think about total abandon.
As they wove their way through the crowd, a high-pitched laugh caught her attention. She turned and stopped. “Lena?”
Good Lord. The woman’s husband had dumped her less than two weeks ago, and here she was out on a date in full makeup, hair actually curled, and a low cut top that covered barely a third of her breasts. The outfit took rebounding to a new level. Jessie had to admit the woman had guts. At least Lena wasn’t sitting home feeling sorry for herself like Jessie would have been, but her situation had been different. She’d dumped her last boyfriend instead of the other way around.
Her friend rushed over, looking wasted. “Jessie! Don’t you ever rest?”
“Actually, I’m here to relax.” No way would she say she wanted to drown her sorrows. The town didn’t need to learn about Sadie’s death so soon.
Lena touched Dax’s arm. “I remember you from the café.” She let go and turned back to Jessie. “You got something to tell me, honey?” Lena looked up at Dax then back to Jessie and winked.
Oh, boy. This was the last conversation she needed, especially with Dax standing right next to her.
As if he read her mind, Dax leaned close to her ear. “I’ll snag those two seats at the bar for us.”
Us, as in a couple. It had a nice ring, but it was definitely not in the direction she planned to go. “Okay.”
To move past her, he placed a hand on the small of her back, and his touch sent heat through her shirt. She needed to have her head examined. The man was here to do a job—one that was finished as of an hour ago. He’d be gone as soon as Walt repaired his car.
Lena clasped Jessie’s hand and squeezed. “You’ve been holding out on me, Jess.”
She withdrew her fingers from her friend’s grasp and crossed her arms. Details would only lead to other questions. “Dax is helping with an investigation, that’s all.”
“So it’s Dax now, is it?” She giggled. “Whoops. Where are my manners? Jessie, this is Seth Walker. He’s new in town.” The man had sidled up next to Lena the moment Dax left.
Nice looking guy, military fit body, and short-cropped hair. As they shook hands, she made a mental note to keep an eye on him “Welcome to Kerry, Seth.”
If he was in the military perhaps he had some marksman skills—enough to shoot out a tire and a camera lens. If the noise from the bar hadn’t been so loud, she might have questioned him.
“Thanks.”
“Well,” Lena said, “Don’t keep that hunk of yours waiting too long. Good men don’t come by very often.” She turned back to her date and looked all googly-eyed at him.
Jessie let the lovebirds enjoy each other’s company as she headed back to Dax. On the way, a good half dozen people insisted on speaking with her, offering their condolences regarding Clinton’s disappearance. Thank goodness they didn’t know about Sadie. She could only take so much sympathy at once. Breaking down in front of everyone would surely get back to the mayor and kill any chance of her making sheriff.
To push aside all the bad thoughts that were scrambling her brain, she focused on wonderful things, like blooming gardenias, rainbows over waterfalls, and Dax’s remarkable profile. Stop it. She didn’t need to be staring at his Roman nose, strong chin, and his thick, dark hair. She quickly added his muscular body to the list of things she didn’t need to be thinking about.
Dax wasn’t looking at her when she slid onto the stool next to him. In fact, he didn’t even seem to notice she’d arrived. He was definitely lost in thought, and she wondered what had captured his attention.
Bruno rushed over. “Evening, Jess. What can I get you?” He smiled as he always did when she stopped by. The man was eternally hopeful.
She noticed Dax had nothing in front of him, so she touched his arm to get his attention, and powerful muscles bulged under his long sleeved shirt. “You don’t want a drink?”
He turned to her as though startled. “Yeah, I do.” Dax nodded to Bruno. “But getting service around here ain’t easy.” He furrowed his brows.
Whoa. She hadn’t seen him lose his cool before.
Tension jumped to Bruno’s face faster than a spreading wildfire. “Can’t you see I’ve been busy?”
Jessie held her breath. The last thing she needed was a bar fight, especially between these two. Bruno must be upset because she was sitting with Dax, but he needed to get over the fact she didn’t want to go out with him.
“I’ll have a Guinness,” Dax said relaxing back against the chair.
Relieved he hadn’t made a scene, she wrinkled her nose. “Ale’s too bitter for me. I’ll have a scotch on the rocks—and make it a double.”
Bruno’s eyes widened. “Are you sure? You’ve never ordered anything stronger than a beer.”
“Tonight’s different.”
“Okay, you’re the boss.”
Dax turned his seat toward her. “I’m sorry about Sadie.”
Before she could answer, Bruno returned. “Here ya go.” He set down the drinks. “I’ll put these on your date’s tab.”
The man definitely had unresolved issues. She’d have to set him straight when she wasn’t with Dax. Too exhausted to squabble over the check, she let it slide for now. Tomorrow, she’d slip Dax some cash.
He peered into his beer, looking sad, distant, and quite troubled. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but she couldn’t handle any more problems tonight. He then swiveled around and faced her, opened his mouth then shut it. She figured he wanted to talk about what had happened, but she didn’t—or rather she couldn’t. Thinking about Sadie’s withered skin made her gag. God, it had been so awful.
Jessie grabbed the tall tumbler. To hell with it. Tonight, she needed to drink. It wasn’t everyday she found her grandmother’s best friend brutally murdered.
She was halfway through her scotch when a hand reached out and tipped the glass downward.
“Easy there. I thought you didn’t have to rush home?” Dax said.
Damn him. “I don’t. Just leave me alone, will ya?” She turned her shoulder to the side. She shouldn’t have snapped at him, but she was barely holding it together. Hopefully, he understood that she was hurting and not angry at him.
Jessie polished off the rest of her scotch, not caring that she was drinking it too fast. She needed to blot out seeing the body that had been limp, discolored, and lifeless. She hiccupped and slapped a hand over her mouth. If Nana were here, she would be horrified to see Jessie drunk, especially while in uniform.
She motioned for another scotch. When Bruno didn’t magically appear, she turned around and faced the crowd, searching for him.
People moved and mingled, and she finally spotted the owner leaning over Seth, Lena’s date. Bruno looked ready to kick some ass, and she tensed. The owner usually tried to please his customers, not antagonize them. Then she remembered the man with Lena was a newcomer, and Bruno didn’t do well with them. When he finally moved back to the bar, she motioned him over. “Something wrong?”
“Hell, yes. That guy with Lena? He’s supposed to be working tonight, not socializing with the clientele. He doesn’t get paid to get women in the sack.”
Too much information for her, though if Bruno had hired Seth, he must have checked his references. “Okay. May I have another, please?” She waved her glass.
He looked at her hard then moved his gaze to Dax whose fingers wiggled. Too bad she couldn’t tell what kind of hand signal he was giving Bruno. The last thing she needed was his controlling behavior tonight.
A moment later, another double scotch arrived. Well, maybe he’d indicated he’d be the designated driver. Someone had to make sure they arrived home safely, and tonight Jessie wasn’t sure she was capable.
She was mostly through her next drink, when Dax leaned over and whispered in her ear, causing her senses to explode. “Would you like to dance?” he asked in a slow, sexy way that had her pulse racing. For the briefest moment, she forgot where they’d spent the last few hours.
She moved her head to see if he was kidding and their lips nearly collided. “D-dance? I don-don’t dance. And how can you ask me to enjoy myself when Sadie’s dead?”
He took her hand, and she didn’t pull away since his warmth calmed her.
“Would Sadie want you to sit around and mourn, or enjoy yourself?”
That was an unfair question. Of all the people she knew, Sadie loved to party the most. “The woman liked nothing more than to dance.” A pleasant memory surfaced and the briefest of smiles lifted her lips. “She sure could run circles around the best of them.”
“Dancing will take your mind off the pain. Trust me.”
Dax tapped his leg then stood. Before she could protest, he had her on her feet and was pulling her through the crowd. Dear Lord, she felt like she was back in high school with Brian at their first dance. She thought she’d erased that from her memory banks, but apparently, she hadn’t.
A Clint Black melody ended and an even slower song began. She started to make an excuse as to why this wasn’t a good idea, but her lips wouldn’t move. Her feet weren’t doing such a good job either. Without warning, Dax wrapped a strong arm around her waist and was clasping her right hand in his. Her breasts were plastered against his amazingly hard chest, causing her pulse to race and parts of her body she long thought dead to wake up.
For some reason, the security of his arms did more for her than all the scotch she’d had. She thought she heard someone snicker, but she didn’t want to look at anyone but him. Dax was glancing down at her with a dreamy look on his face too. It was as though he was remembering something from the past. Soon, the slow, sensual music made her muscles relax, and the alcohol forced her mind to block out the scene in the woods.
“You okay?” he asked.
She looked up and saw two heads resting on his broad shoulders. “Sure.”
Had it not been for the crush of people, and Dax’s strong arms around her, she might have dropped to the ground since her knees were having trouble holding her up.
Oh, shit. She was actually drunk. Jessie couldn’t even remember the last time she had so much alcohol in such a short period of time.
She reached up and touched his cheek. “Your face feels like sandpaper. Did you know that?” She prayed her words didn’t sound as slurred to him as they did to her.
He grabbed her hand and slid it around his neck. “That happens sometimes.”
“I think I’ve had too much to drink.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll watch out for you.”
“No, I really am drunk. I think it’s time we head to bed.”