Brian Freeman - The Burying Place

Marcus.

She turned around. 'Why?'

Regan got off the steps and marched closer. Valerie stared at her, this woman who was barely younger than she was. A woman with no curves and ragged hair and a face marred by purple make-up and ugly piercings. Valerie tried to imagine what it was her husband could have seen in a woman like this, what could have possessed him to bring her into their bed.

It was as if Regan could read her mind.

'It doesn’t matter whether you're beautiful,' Regan said. 'That's not what it's about, and you know it.'

'What I know is that you were in my hospital room while I was in labor. What I know is that you slept with my husband while my baby was being born.'

'Doesn't that tell you something?' Regan asked.

'It tells me who you are.'

'It should tell you who Marcus is, too. He never cared about Callie. He never wanted her.'

'You're wrong.'

'You think that whore in Vegas is the only girl he confessed to? He told me the same thing. How he wished you would lose the baby. I low he wished she'd never been born. That's the man you're married to, Valerie.'

Valerie yanked her glove off her hand and slapped Regan across the face. The blow raised a spidery welt on the nurse's pale face the color of a strawberry. Regan stumbled backward, but otherwise, she didn't react.

'Don't kill the messenger,' Regan said calmly.

'If you think you're messing with my head, you're wrong.'

But she wasn't wrong. They both knew it. Valerie's face betrayed her. She felt as if a flood were washing away the foundations of her world, and Regan could see her grasping for a lifeline.

'I don't have to tell you why, do I?' Regan asked.

'You're crazy.'

'Come on, Valerie. Isn't it obvious? Don't you know?'

'I don't know a thing,' Valerie snapped. 'I'm not listening to any more of this. Marcus loves Callie.'

Regan laughed. Her teeth were as white as her skin. 'My God, you really don't know. That's hilarious.'

'Go to hell!'

Valerie stormed away, but Regan took two hurried steps and stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder. 'Wait.'

Regan unzipped her parka and extracted a sealed envelope from an inside pocket. Valerie recognized the logo for St Mary's Hospital on the paper. Regan extended the envelope in her outstretched hand, and when Valerie didn't take it, Regan moved closer and nudged the top of the envelope into the waist of Valerie's jeans.

'I can't believe you didn't know,' she whispered in her ear.

She sidled past Valerie, who stood frozen, listening to the sound of the woman's footsteps. Behind her, Valerie heard the door of the Hummer open and close. She still didn't move. She stood there like an ice sculpture while Regan drove away, leaving her alone in front of the church.

In the gray light of dawn, Maggie watched Guppo and his team pore over the black van they had dragged from the shallow water of Island Lake. She rubbed her eyes; it had been a long, sleepless night. Behind her, Kasey Kennedy lay across the snug rear seat of the Avalanche. With her eyes closed, the young cop's face was angelic, but once again, she had demonstrated equal parts foolishness and balls.

There was no way around it. Maggie liked Kasey. The young cop's pig-headed intensity reminded her of her own early years on the force. She had the kind of determination that meant you would never quit until you got where you wanted to go. It could also get you killed.

Near the lake, Guppo gestured to her. Maggie slid out of the truck without disturbing Kasey and joined the overweight detective near the boat ramp. The small clearing was crowded with police vehicles and crime scene investigators. Everywhere Maggie went this morning, a dozen heads followed her.

Guppo's stare was focused two inches north of her eyes.

'Quit it,' Maggie told him.

'I can't help it,' he said. 'It's just so… so…'

'Red.'

'Exactly. Red.'

'I told you I was thinking about it.'

'Yeah, but I never thought you'd actually do it,' Guppo replied, laughing. 'And especially so… so…'

'Red.'

'Yeah. It's red.'

'Are you done?' Maggie asked.

'For now.'

'What's the report?'

'It's his van,' Guppo told her, but she noticed that he was talking to her hair, not her face. 'Despite the water damage, there's blood all over the interior. It's not a pretty sight.'

'Shit,' Maggie said. 'Match it to the missing women, and make sure we don't have any other samples in there. We don't know how long he's been doing this.'

Guppo nodded. 'The Minnesota plates don't match the van. They come from a Volvo sedan. We called the owner. He's a personal injury attorney in St Paul, and he says the car is parked in the garage of his summer home south of Duluth. He only drives the Volvo when he's up here, and he hasn't been in the city since early September. He had no clue the plates were gone.'

'Let's run his house for prints.'

'We're getting the warrant now.'

'What about the van itself?'

'According to the VIN, it was stolen in Colorado Springs six months ago,' Guppo told her.

Maggie arched an eyebrow. 'Colorado? That's interesting.'

'We'll contact the authorities down there today and see what we can find out.'

'See if they have any unsolved murders in the area that match our MO,' Maggie told him. 'And get them our DNA report to run through the state database there.'

'I'm on it.'

'What about the car he stole last night to get away?'

'It's a Cadillac. The owner left it unlocked. People are too damned trusting around here.'

'Any hits?' Maggie asked.

'No, nobody's seen it yet.'

Maggie nodded. 'We're getting closer to this asshole.'

'It feels that way.'

'Any prints inside the van?'

'We're still checking,' Guppo said. 'It doesn’t help that the thing went for a swim.'

'You heard that the nine one one call was a fake, right?' Maggie asked. 'He deliberately lured us away.'

'Yeah. You know what that means?'

'It means he was going after the kid. This guy's got a hard-on for Kasey.'

'That could help us,' Guppo said. 'Do you have people watching her house?'

Maggie nodded. 'Yeah, she doesn’t like it, but I've got a black-and- white on the other side of the highway.'

'Well, maybe we don't want to scare him away,' Guppo suggested. 'Maybe we ought to be using her as bait.'

Maggie shook her head fiercely. 'No way.'

'I'm just saying—'

'I told you, no. We're not risking that girl's life. She's a cop, a wife, and a mother. I want to scare this guy a hundred miles away from her.'

'Whatever you say,' Guppo told her, but his round face frowned.

'I'm going back to City Hall,' Maggie added. 'I'll take Kasey with me. I want to get a photo of the van out to the media. That may jog some memories.'

'We've still got a few hours left out here,' Guppo said.

'OK, check in when you're back. I have to see Stride this morning out on the Point. I also want to see if we can find anything more on this Nick Garaldo.'

'Is that the young guy who went missing over the weekend?'

'That's him. He still hasn't turned up. It's been two days. I'm going to stop by his apartment and see what I can find.'

Guppo gestured at her bangs. 'You're seeing Stride, huh? You tell him about the hair?'

Maggie shrugged. 'You really think he'll notice?'

Stride drove into Duluth on the northern route that took him through Hermantown and across Miller Hill. As he headed down the sharp slope into the streets of downtown, he could see the harbor and the giant swath of Lake Superior filling the valley. White waves surged against the beach. A gray layer of clouds made the brick city buildings look old, as if time had frozen here in some extreme winter decades ago.