Brian Freeman - The Burying Place

Maggie studied the photos that looped across her monitor and spotted a single image of a different structure, outside, under the sunshine. She broke out of the slide show and scrolled down to the corresponding thumbnail, which was the last picture on the card. When she enlarged it, she saw an old-fashioned school building set in the middle of an overgrown grassy field. The windows sported gaping, jagged holes that resembled bats. The walls were eroded and crumbling. A sinkhole sat where part of the school had collapsed and been hauled away, leaving only the foundation.

Seeing it, Maggie recognized the locale. It was the old Buckthorn School. The ruins had been a headache for the police and the township for years. Teenagers were always getting inside and getting hurt, and just a few weeks ago, the city had scraped together the budget money to have the place boarded up and secured. Since then, she didn't think there had been any calls to the site.

Looking at the photo, she realized that the school ruins would be an irresistible lure for someone like Nick Garaldo.

Maggie pulled out her city directory and found the number for the administrator for the township of Buckthorn. She dialed, and Matt Clayton answered on the first ring. He had a big, exuberant voice.

'Matt, it's Maggie Bei in the Duluth Police,' she said. 'Remember me?'

'Hey, sure, Sergeant. Good to talk to you. What's up?'

'It's that damned school again,' Maggie told him.

Clayton groaned. 'Oh, shit, what now? We had that place locked up like Fort Knox.'

'I don't know what's going on. Maybe nothing. We haven't had any reports at our office, but I was wondering if you'd heard anything from neighbors on the farms up there. Complaints, nuisances, stuff that might not get to us.'

'Nothing,' Clayton replied. 'I thought we were finally done with that place. We had a contractor seal off the building, and we hired a local security guy to come by every couple of days and keep an eye on it. You know, walk around, tug on the locks, that kind of thing. He hasn't reported anything unusual.'

'What's his name?'

'Uh, hang on, let me check. Here we go. It's Nieman. Jim Nieman. You want his number?'

Maggie grabbed a pen. 'Yeah, and could you get hold of him and give him my number, too? I'd like him to go over and do a look-see on the place inside and out. Tell him to give me a call and let me know what he finds.'

'No problem. What's going on?'

'There's a guy missing,' Maggie told him. 'A twenty-something kid named Nick Garaldo. Nobody's seen him since Saturday. I think he may be one of these urban explorers who like to break into abandoned properties just so they can say they've been there.'

'You think he was at the school?' Clayton asked.

'Could be. I found a picture of the school on a photo card in his apartment. It was taken before you guys secured the property. He might have been scouting it for a raid.'

'Damn, can't these guys just go bungee jumping or something?'

'Tell me about it. Anyway, it may be a wild goose chase. For all I know, Garaldo was there and gone weeks ago, but it's worth checking out.'

'I'll call Nieman and ask him to get out there today. I hope that kid's not inside. There's a lot of dangerous debris in that place. Not to mention rats.'

'I'm not a big fan of rats,' Maggie said.

'You and me both.'

Maggie took another look at the police report from the Armory break-in. 'Hey, tell Nieman to keep his eyes open for something else, too.'

'What?'

'Red pistachio shells.'

Stride and Serena spent the morning in silence.

They sat on opposite sides of the desk in the war room in Grand Rapids, with a pretense of paperwork between them. Her perfume drifted across the short space and smelled sweet and familiar. The heat in the building had been cranked until it was uncomfortably warm in the tiny office. When her head was down, with her dark hair tumbling across her face, Stride found himself staring at her. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever met. Complex, wounded, attractive. Three years ago, she had seemed like the perfect fit for him, as if two broken souls could come together and make a whole.

Serena looked up and met his eyes. They didn't need to speak to send a message between them. She felt angry and rejected. It had been bad enough before, but it was worse now, and he realized that they were spiraling out of control. She knew it, too. She waited for him to talk to her, and when he didn't, she got out of her chair and closed the office door. She leaned against it and folded her arms.

'You told her,' Serena said, her voice fierce.

Stride didn't understand. 'What do you mean?'

'Not me. You told her.''

'Maggie,' he said.

'Yeah. Maggie. She told me what's been going on.' Serena cupped her long fingers in front of her chin. 'I want you to understand something, Jonny. I'm hurting for you. I knew you were pushing me away, but I didn't know why. Now I do. I get it. And I'm sorry.'

'So am I.'

'But I'm having a lot of trouble with this,' she continued. 'You were going through hell, and rather than talk to me about it, you let it sabotage our whole relationship. And when you finally opened up about what was going on, it wasn't to me. Do you have any idea what it felt like to hear about this from her?'

'You're right. I should have told you myself.'

'But you didn't. You couldn't open up to me. I was hoping you and I were past that, but obviously we aren't.'

'I guess not.'

'But you were able to talk to Maggie.'

'Sometimes it's easier to talk to someone who's not in the middle of it,' he said.

'Yes, but she is in the middle of it, isn't she? She always has been.'

Stride ran his hand back through his messy hair. He normally had a good poker face, but not now. He shook his head in frustration. 'It's always been complicated between me and Maggie. You know that.'

'It's not so complicated. She loves you.'

'That was years ago,' he protested.

'It's not like a disease, and you wake up and you're cured. The only one in denial here is you. And I think it's because you have feelings for her, too.'

'We're friends. We've been friends forever. Sometimes it's hard to know where the line is.'

Serena sat down across from him again. 'I was getting a strange vibe at dinner last night,' she said.

He didn't reply.

'I thought about it all last night, trying to figure out what it was,' she continued.

'Serena,' he murmured.

She knew without asking, but she asked it anyway. 'Something happened between the two of you, didn't it?'

He didn't even think about denying it. He met her eyes and nodded.

Serena slashed her arm across the desk, tumbling stacks of paper to the floor. 'So with me you have nothing to give, but with her ?' she asked bitterly.

'I'm really sorry.'

She stood up. 'I think we're done here.'

'Let's talk about this,' he said.

'Now you want to talk? Isn't it a little late for that? You've had weeks to talk to me, and you didn't. But in one day with Maggie, you managed to jump into bed and tell her everything that was going on in your head.'

'It's not that simple.'

'Maybe it is, Jonny. Maybe it is.' She grabbed her coat from the hook. As she twisted the doorknob, she stopped and closed her eyes. 'Look, I know I'm not being fair with you. I haven't opened up to you, either.'

'I'm not looking for excuses,' Stride told her. 'This is my fault. Not yours. Not Maggie's.'

Serena shook her head. 'Let's not talk about Maggie. She knew exactly what she was doing. Don't tell me she didn't.'

'It wasn't like that.'

'Not to you, maybe. She saw her opportunity, and she took it. End of story.' She added in a quiet voice, 'Are you in love with her?'