Unhallowed Ground

“Sorry, I changed the subject on you. You came down here looking for a girl who disappeared a year ago. So far you’ve found a guy dead in a sunken car and some other girl dead on the beach. Unless…you don’t think she’s the girl you’re looking for, do you?” he asked.



“No, definitely not,” Caleb said. He’d thought at first that she might be. But the woman on the beach had naturally dark hair—Floby had pointed that out. She was also petite, maybe five feet even, and Jennie Lawson had been taller, around five foot seven.



“So do you think everything’s connected?” Will asked. “Except for the guy in the car, I mean.”



“Yes, that’s what I think,” Caleb said.



“Do you think you’ll ever be able to prove it?” Renee asked him, shivering.



“Yes. Because all killers mess up eventually,” Caleb said.



“Not Jack the Ripper,” Caroline pointed out.



“With today’s science, he’d have been picked up,” Caleb said.



“But we all know that killers get away with it all the time,” Barry said, shaking his head. “It’s terrible, but it’s true. There are tons of unsolved murders.”



“Let’s get off the subject of murder, okay?” Caroline asked.



“Okay, here’s another subject,” Will said. “I need another beer.”



“We all need food,” Sarah said.



“Yes, Mom,” Will said.



“I’m going to smack you in two seconds,” Sarah promised him. “Don’t eat if you don’t want to, but I’m going to.” She stood, looking irritated, and headed for the bar. Caleb stood and joined her.



“Are you all right?” he asked, standing next to her while she waited for their waitress to finish at the draft taps.



She looked at him. “Actually, I’ve been anxious to see you all day,” she admitted.



“It was the sex comment, right?” he said, hoping he wasn’t coming off as a total jerk.



She flushed slightly, looking away. “In a way, yes.”



“Oh?”



“You have to admit, it was pretty memorable. But the thing is, now I know exactly why I thought what I did.”



“Really?”



“Really,” she said firmly, looking at him again. “I don’t want to show you now, and I don’t think you want me to show you now, either. Since you’re down here working, I’m assuming you don’t want to become the lead story on the local news. Those guys,” she said, indicating the table, “are a great bunch of people, but you saw the way they hopped right on Jamison. No secret is safe with them.”



He stared at her, trying to follow her words. “Well, thanks for thinking about my reputation, but I have no idea what on earth you’re talking about.”



She laughed. “Walk me home. I’ll show you then.”



Their waitress turned to them then, apologizing, and Sarah told her that they just needed menus. She ordered another beer for Will, too.



He thanked her when she returned to the table, depositing the beer in front of him, and asked, “May I have a menu, too? Please? I won’t be obnoxious anymore, I promise.”



“You can’t help it,” Sarah said, but she handed him a menu.



They spent the next few minutes poring over the menu, but in the end, they ordered a round of fish and chips for the table.



Right after they ordered, Caleb’s phone rang. He checked the caller ID and was surprised to see that it was a number he had just entered that afternoon: Floby’s cell.



He answered quickly, then excused himself and went outside.



“Where are you?” Floby asked him.



“At Hunky Harry’s,” Caleb said.



“Well, I just thought that you might want to know what I found out right away,” Floby told him. “I haven’t even spoken with Jamison yet. He hasn’t answered his page.”



Caleb didn’t reply to that. He didn’t know Jamison well, and he had never met his wife. It wasn’t his place to comment on what the lieutenant might or might not be doing that was keeping him from answering his phone.



“Thank you for calling me,” he said. “I’d love to know what you’ve come up with.”



“Here’s the strange thing. I think this girl was buried—and then dug up and thrown into the water.”



“What?” That was a twist on delayed immersion he’d certainly never thought of.



“She’s been dead five or six months. If she’d been in the water all that time, she’d have been chewed to ribbons. You saw the guy who died in his car, so you know what the fish can do to soft tissue. This girl…her organs have decayed as if she’s been dead for months, but there’s just no way in hell she could have been in the water that long. Come by tomorrow, if you can. You need to see what I’m seeing to fully understand.”



“Definitely. I’ll be there first thing,” Caleb said.



When he walked back inside, he could tell that the group had been talking about him again. Sarah had been right about the way they talked about people, even insiders, like Jamison. And they were probably worse when it came to outsiders.



“Anything new?” Will asked him as he took his seat again.



“No more bodies—I hope?” Renee asked.



“No, thankfully,” he said simply, looking up as he saw their waitress coming over with the food. “That was fast.”



The food was served. The fish was crispy and delicious, and Caleb realized he hadn’t known how hungry he was.



Renee suddenly put down her fork. “Maybe we should have had burgers,” she said.



“Why?” Barry asked her. “You love the fish and chips here.”



“No, I was just thinking that we’re eating fish, and fish eat everything in the water.”



They were all silent. She hadn’t said what she was really thinking.



That fish ate corpses in the water.



“Okay, that’s it, I’m done,” Sarah said, and rose.



“Will we see you tomorrow?” Barry asked her.



She shook her head. “I’ve been given permission to take a leave of absence for a few days, and I have a few things I need to do, so I’m taking this chance to do them. Who knows, though? I may stop by and check in on you working stiffs—”



She broke off, looking stricken.



Will groaned. “We can’t say anything these days, huh?” He stood up, too. “I’ll get the check, so just wait for me. You’re not walking home alone. And if anything more happens around here, you’re not staying in that place alone, no matter what,” he told her firmly.



“Thanks—Dad,” she said. “But I’m all right, and I’m not a fool. And you can sit back down. Caleb is going to walk me home.”



Will looked at Caleb, as if sizing him up for a moment. It was only natural, laudable even, that he should be worried. And when Will nodded approvingly, it felt good to see that although Will was the one who had called him a corpse magnet, the other man also seemed to trust him to take care of Sarah.



“All right,” Will said. “But take care and try not to be your usual ‘I can do anything myself, by myself,’ self, okay? Please.”



Sarah smiled and gave him a hug. “I promise. I will not go wandering alone in the dark, and I’ll lock my door the second Caleb leaves. I’ll double lock it. Trust me.”



She and Caleb tossed some money on the table, then left. Out on the street, he looked at her and said, “I’m breathless with anticipation.”



She laughed, and he was glad to see the humor in her eyes when she told him, “Sorry, but I’m not going to burst into your room looking for sex.” After she spoke, she flushed slightly. “Sorry. Couldn’t help myself. Anyway, there’s a picture I need to show you. We can stand under that street lamp so you can see, and then I’ll explain everything I discovered today while we walk back to my place.”



She reached into her purse and handed him an old photograph in a frame.



It was amazing. He could have been looking at a picture of himself in costume.



“How did you do this?” he asked her.



“I didn’t do it!” she protested indignantly. “It was at the museum. It’s why Caroline and I thought we’d seen you before. It was part of a recent exhibit, so it must have stuck in our minds.”



He stared at the photograph again. “This is the real thing?”



“Yes, and I can even explain it. I looked up your family tree.”



“You did what?”



“I looked up your family tree. I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to invade your privacy,” she said.



“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bark.”



“Caleb, you have ancestors who used to live here. Did you know that?”



He shook his head. “My folks weren’t the kind who were into figuring out their roots.”



“Well, there are a lot of Web sites that do just that, and I printed off your family tree. I feel like such an idiot for bursting in on you this morning, and at least this explains why I was so…confused.”



She was palpably sincere. Her eyes were silver in the moonlight, and he could smell the faint scent of her perfume. Somewhere in his core, he felt a stirring and a warmth. He’d wanted to touch her from the minute he’d seen her, but he’d never been more tempted than he was at that moment.



He needed to walk her home, see that she was safe.



He needed to keep his hands off her.



“Actually, you barging in that way was rather titillating,” he said, unable to prevent a smile.



She laughed, her cheeks turning a becoming shade of rose, but she didn’t look away. “Look, what I’m trying to explain to you is that I’m not a lunatic and I don’t usually go banging on men’s doors and yelling at them. I guess I did have a dream, but if you look at this, you can see why I thought what I did. I mean…this could be a picture of you.”