Chapter Four
‡
All the reunion guests had gathered under the protection of the pavilion, huddled close together not because they were cold but because there were too many people shoved into a small space. Luckily, the storm passed quickly and the crowd began to move back into the open again. A couple of guys grabbed a bat and ball and started a pick up softball game out in the wet field.
Leann was chatting with her friend Jenna, but she excused herself and joined Zach as he watched the game. “We don’t have to stay if you’re bored. I don’t mind leaving.”
She sounded like she wanted to go but didn’t want to admit it was her idea. Had she had enough of nostalgia for one evening?
“I’m fine. We can stay as long as you like.”
They sat quietly for a half inning before she spoke again. “It looks like they could use someone like you in the game. I think most of these guys don’t get out and exercise much.”
What they lacked in skill, the men made up in enthusiasm. They were having a ball, although it might have more to do with the amount of beer imbibed than the physical exertion and competition.
“Someone like me? I’m not sure I follow.”
He didn’t even like baseball all that much, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d played it. High school, maybe?
“You know…you’re in shape. I bet you play lots of sports.”
“You’d lose that bet,” he laughed, keeping his eyes on the game. “I’m not a big team sport kind of guy. I’m more of an individual competitor. For fitness, I do mixed martial arts. I have since I was in the Army. It’s a great workout, plus you learn to handle yourself in a fight.”
“I took a self-defense class in Florida. It was interesting.”
“Interesting? I would hope it would be more than that. Do you feel confident that you could take on an attacker?”
Her lips twisted and he had his answer. “Sadly, no. I walked out feeling confident but I think if those skills aren’t practiced a lot they tend to fade away. If confronted I’d probably panic and scream.”
He made a mental note to mention this to Jason. Hopefully as her big brother he could convince her to take another class or six. Even in a small town like Tremont it was better safe than sorry.
“Never underestimate the power of a good, loud scream at the top of your lungs. It’s saved more people than you’d think. Criminals don’t like their victims to call attention to themselves.”
As if on cue, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air, getting everyone’s attention. The softball game stopped and everyone stood still until the second scream sounded. A woman ran out of the brush around the lake, waving her arms and yelling.
Not hesitating, Zach took off toward her, running right through the game and capturing the female by the shoulders so she had to look up at him.
“Ma’am, are you okay? What’s wrong?”
Face pale and eyes wide, she waved an arm toward the lake. “It’s Bitty. Larry and I were walking along the bank and then we saw her. She was just lying there with her eyes open, kind of staring at us. Oh God, Bitty’s dead.”
Jesus, not again. Right out here in the open too. The killer was brazen to do something like that. He was gaining confidence. They could have been seen by anyone.
Bitty and Carole were friends and possibly rivals as well. Now they were both dead. There had to be a connection.
But the more pressing question? How did Leann fit into all of this? These were women from her group of friends. Was this revenge of some kind against the popular girls in high school? As far as Zach was concerned that put Leann right into the crosshairs of a killer.
* * *
Zach knelt down next to Bitty’s body, Jason hovering over his shoulder.
“From the marks on her neck I’d say she was strangled, maybe with a rope of some kind. Her clothes are also soaked so I’d put time of death during the rainstorm that came through here. I’m guessing the killer lured her away from the group and then used the thunder and rain as cover for what he was doing.”
“Then it ought to be simple,” Jason observed. “Who was missing during the storm?”
“That’s not an easy answer. We were all stuffed into that pavilion like sardines. We can ask Leann but I’m not sure she’ll even know. Her classmates brought husbands and wives with them, people she wouldn’t recognize.”
Straightening, Zach moved away from the body to let the newly arrived medical examiner do his job. There was a line of people, including Leann, being held back by a few deputies. Everyone wanted the one thing Zach didn’t have. Details. Like the murder before, they were scarce.
“Let’s step over here so we can talk without anyone overhearing us,” Zach suggested, leading Jason to an area by some trees.
“Do you know something?”
Zach’s gaze ran over the crowd of reunion guests, looking for…what? Someone that didn’t fit in? Or looked guilty? Perhaps someone that didn’t look horrified?
“Whoever this is isn’t dumb,” he said. “He did this in the rain, washing away a lot of evidence. He also didn’t use his bare hands to strangle her. That might have left prints we could use. Whatever he did strangle her with he had the sense to take with him as well. But this does have one thing in common with Carole Russell’s murder. It looks like these women trusted the killer. There aren’t signs of much of a struggle or defensive wounds. Bitty walked out here with her murderer as if he was a close friend.”
A muscle ticked in Jason’s jaw. “No witnesses, too. Why do I have a feeling this guy is just getting started?”
“I’ve got the same feeling. He’s become bolder and more aggressive. All of the girls in Carole and Bitty’s social group need to be on their guard. The buddy system at all times.”
Jason’s head shot up and his eyes narrowed. “Leann was their friend. They all hung out together.”
Zach had already thought about that but he took no pleasure in bringing this subject up to his employer. “If someone is here at the reunion looking for revenge, anyone in that social circle needs to be careful. That includes Leann. We may be way off here about the killer’s motivation but I’m just going with what we know.”
“I hope you’re wrong,” Jason replied grimly. “But in case you’re not, your number one priority just changed. You need to keep my sister safe no matter what. You stick to her like glue. I’ll get Logan and my family to help out. Until we find this guy I don’t want Leann to be alone.”
Zach had known this was coming. Nobody could close ranks like the Anderson family.
“I won’t let anything happen to your sister but we have another issue. How are we going to everyone safe? Should we ask the committee to call off the reunion?”
“I thought about that but what if he simply raises stakes and leaves? Then we’ll never get him. Both of these women lived in Tremont so the killer could have gotten to them at any time if he lived here. I think he’s from out of town.”
Maybe. Zach was leaning a different way.
“Or he could have waited until the reunion because of its symbolic nature. Bringing everyone together from his past and making a big show of the killings. Look at how he leaves the bodies where they can be found easily. He wants people to know what he’s done because he’s proud of it. It could be his way of saying ‘How do you like me now?’ That means he could be from here. So far he’s certainly known his way around. He knew that the back of the bar didn’t have cameras and he knew about the lake.”
Jason cast a glance over his shoulder at the crowd watching their every move. “I don’t like this at all. I’m going to talk to West and the chief of police about putting extra patrols around the reunion dance tomorrow night plus a few plainclothes cops inside the event. In the meantime, we need to go warn the reunion guests. A few left after Carole’s murder and I’m guessing a few more will after this.”
“I’m surprised you’re not trying to talk Leann into going back to Florida.”
Barking with laughter, Jason shook his head. “Have you met my little sister? She’s as contrary as they come. When we want her to come home, she won’t. I bet if we told her to leave, she wouldn’t do it. Frankly, I think the safest place for her is here where her family can watch over her. I wouldn’t sleep well at night if we just sent her back without a second thought. We don’t know what lengths this killer is willing to go to and I don’t want to find out by getting a call from the Florida cops that Leann is dead.”
Zach understood wanting to protect family. He’d do anything to ensure Gigi and Aubrey’s safety. Besides, today hadn’t been so bad. He’d enjoyed talking to Leann and spending time with her. West and Travis had protected his sisters when he couldn’t be there. It was time to return the favor.
He would keep her safe and alive from a killer who might not be finished.
* * *
Zach’s fingers drummed against the steering wheel as he drove Leann home. They’d barely said a word since leaving the park and that had been fine with her. After what had happened, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say or feel. She only knew that she was horrified by Bitty’s murder.
Who was doing this? Who had enough hate and resentment in their hearts to kill the two women?
“Your brother is worried about you, Leann.”
Zach’s voice pulled her from her dark thoughts but it gave her something to concentrate on other than the image of Bitty lying on the grass beside the lake.
“I know,” she replied, swallowing hard. “He thinks that someone wants my social circle dead, doesn’t he?”
“It’s one theory, based on the current evidence. Do you have another one?”
No, she didn’t, although she wished differently.
“I’m not the cop here, you are. What do you think?”
“I think you need to be very careful going forward.” There was a long pause. “Your brother asked me to take the lead in protecting you. Not let you out of my sight and all that. I agreed, of course, but no one has talked to you about that. Are you okay with it being me? If not, I’m sure Jason can ask someone else to do it.”
It was thoughtful…asking for permission. Something her brothers had never heard of in their lifetimes. She often wondered how their wives put up with their alpha male, high-handed bullshit. If she didn’t let Zach, then one of her brothers or cousins was going to do it and then she’d be behind bars for murder.
“It’s just fine. I’ll try not to be a problem or anything.”
“Just try?” he chuckled. “Are you normally difficult to be around? I think I should know ahead of time what I’m getting into.”
Shrugging, she tried to craft a diplomatic response. Oh, what the hell. He was family so he might as well know where the skeletons were buried.
“If you ask my family – the male ones, anyway – they’ll tell you that I’m stubborn and bossy. That I don’t take suggestions well and that I’m obstinate for no good reason.”
“What would the female ones say?”
“The few females that we have in the Anderson family would say that I grew up with so much testosterone in the house that I was practically drowning in it. I had to learn to fight back and stand my ground early or I would have been run over by a bunch of boys who thought they knew what was best for me.”
He didn’t answer right away, absorbing her answer. “Is that why you moved out of Tremont? Because your brothers tried to run your life?”
That was the easy answer but it was more than that. “That was part of it but it was really that I needed an identity separate from being an Anderson. I love my family, Zach, but growing up I was known as the Anderson girl. I just wanted to be Leann.”
He pulled up in front of Dizzy’s house and put the vehicle in park. “Did it work?”
She nodded. “It did but it’s lonely too. I miss my family and friends. I miss living in a little town like Tremont. But I’m glad that I moved away. It helped me grow up and stand on my own two feet. I’m not sure I would have learned how to do that when my brothers were determined I wasn’t going to make any mistakes. Sometimes that’s the only way to learn.”
“Do you think you’d ever move back?”
That was the million dollar question.
“It’s possible. I don’t have anything to prove anymore.”
“I think your family would be glad to have you back, especially now that your brothers are having kids of their own.”
As close as Zach was to Jason, she couldn’t take the chance and admit to him just how close she was to returning.
“I’ve given it some thought.” Pushing open the car door, she turned back to bid him goodnight. “Thank you for driving me home and being my escort. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night for the dance?”
Zach’s smile grew wider as if something was amusing him. “Maybe I wasn’t clear earlier in the conversation. I’m your new bodyguard, Leann. You go nowhere without me or someone else that Jason has assigned. Now head inside and pack a bag. You’re coming home with me where I’ll know you’re safe.”
Hold the phone. What? Home. With Zach.
Leann hadn’t seen this coming at all.