Mariah Stewart - Last Words

Connor stood at the window that faced the driveway, broken glass at his feet.

“Get John Mancini on the phone,” he told her. “It looks like we’ve had a visitor…”

He looked over his shoulder to meet her eyes. “But I don’t know if he was looking for me, or looking for you…”

“Who’d be looking for me?” She frowned.

“I don’t know. But I do know that only three people know I’m here in the country, and two of them are in this room.”

“The third being John.”

“Right. So give him a call, and tell him we need a little backup here ASAP.”

He started up the steps.

“Where are you going?” She paused in mid-dial.

“I’m just going to take a look around outside.” He grabbed a large flashlight from an old wooden workbench and headed up the stairs. “You need to think about what it is you’re working on right now, and why someone might want to take you out of the game.”

Mia listened as the phone rang and rang. Finally, a gruff, “Yes?”

“Beck?”

“Yes.”

“It’s Mia. Listen, I’m going to be late today. Last night…”

“Let me guess. You couldn’t get to sleep on your own, so now you’re hung over?” His voice held an edge she had not heard there before. “Can’t clear your head this morning?”

“I’m going to pretend you did not say that.”

“Is that all? Is that what you called for?”

“I just wanted you to know I was going to be late. This was supposed to be a courtesy call, Beck, but I guess you’ll see me when you see me.” She fought back an urge to curse. It had been a very long night. “How’s that for courtesy?”

“Lisa’s missing,” he said tersely.

“Missing? What do you mean, she’s…” The words caught in her throat. “Missing? You mean… missing ? You think…?”

“Yeah, Mia. I do. And if you’d answered your phone last night, or maybe checked your voice mail once in a while, you’d already know. So you can understand why right now I’m not particularly sympathetic to how you feel this morning. I think you need to get some help if you plan on staying in this line of work.”

The line went dead. She barely noticed.

If the killer had Lisa…

She grabbed her bag from the kitchen counter and hurried outside. Checking for messages on her cell. Damn. Four missed calls. Two new voice mail messages. She played them back, listening to Beck’s terse voice as she searched for Connor.

A half-dozen agents had been combing the woods and the fields and every square inch of ground around the house. So far, they’d found tire prints down the road and some impressions next to the basement window, but little else.

“I have to go,” she told Connor when she found him hunched over the tire marks, supervising the young agent who’d drawn the job of photographing and casting the tires. “I have to leave for St. Dennis.”

“Not a good idea, Mia.” Connor straightened up. “We still don’t know who was coming after who and why. It could very well be someone connected to the case you’re working on there, making a move on you.”

“Doesn’t matter. If he makes the mistake of coming after me, he’ll wish he hadn’t.”

“Brave words, little cousin.” Connor turned his full attention to her. “Mia, what’s going on?”

“This killer…he abducts women and keeps them someplace. Keeps them alive, rapes them, tortures them. When he’s finished with them, he kills them by wrapping them up in plastic wrap and watches them suffocate.”

“Jesus.”

“Right. Well, he’s killed three women that we know of. And apparently, yesterday he took a fourth victim. She’s a cop, Con. I was just starting to get to know her. I like her. Just yesterday she was telling me how happy she was, how she married the man of her dreams and has this perfect life. And just hours later, she was gone.” She cleared her throat. “I have to go. You don’t really need me here.”

“You have someone there who’ll watch your back?”

“Beck.” She called over her shoulder as she started down the road. “The chief of police in St. Dennis. Beck will watch my back…”

Mia hustled through the glass doors off the lobby of the St. Dennis municipal building and into the miniscule area that served as reception for the police department. Garland watched her approach, a look of surprise on his face.

“That’s a different look for you,” he said.

She looked down at her cutoffs and realized she was still dressed in the same shorts and T-shirt and flip flops she’d put on the night before.

“Yeah, well, it’s been a busy night.” She pointed to Beck’s office. “Is the chief in?”

“He’s in, but he’s downstairs in one of the interrogation rooms.”

“St. Dennis has interrogation rooms?” She frowned. “You have a holding cell, too?”

“They’re pretty much the same room,” Garland admitted. “We don’t hold prisoners here. If we arrest someone, we usually take them right to the county facility, or over to Ballard, if it’s only going to be for the night. We’ve never had cells here.”

“Who’s he interrogating?” she asked.

“Mickey.” Vanessa stepped through the open conference room door. “Beck’s questioning Mickey. He thinks he has something to do with Lisa being missing.”

Vanessa’s eyes were clouded with tears.

“He won’t let me come down there.” Vanessa pointed to the steps. “You go on down there and tell him that Mickey couldn’t have had anything to do with anything.”

“Vanessa, maybe you should go on back to the store.” Mia took her arm and tried to steer her gently in the direction of the lobby. “I’ll have Beck give you a call when they’re finished downstairs, okay?”

“You don’t understand, Mia.” Vanessa lowered her voice to a whisper. “Beck really doesn’t like Mickey at all.”

“Trust me. That won’t have a thing to do with it. Beck is too professional to allow his personal feelings to influence an investigation.” She hoped. No, she knew. Beck was a cop first. “Look, how about if I check downstairs, see what’s what. I’ll stop over at the shop later, all right? I’ll keep you in the loop, I promise.”

“Okay.” Vanessa nodded.

“Vanessa, are you in love with him? With Mickey?” Mia couldn’t help but ask.

“No.” She smiled weakly. “But we’re friends. He’s not capable of doing…whatever Beck thinks he might have done. Mickey’s had a hard year, with his wife leaving him and all that, but he’s a good guy, Mia. He really is.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Mia nodded. She watched Vanessa head for the door. “Vanessa,” she called out and the young woman turned. “Do you know why she left him? Mickey’s wife?”

Vanessa nodded. “She was offered a job with some big hospital in Philly.”

“What does she do?”

“She’s an E.R. doctor. After the kids were born, she worked part-time, mostly weekends, but then, I guess it just wasn’t enough for her. According to Mick, she sent out applications to a bunch of hospitals without telling him, then when she got an offer she liked, she just told him she was leaving and taking the kids. Sad, huh? To just walk like that?” Vanessa shook her head. “Talk about dropping a bomb into someone’s life…”

“Yeah.” Mia nodded. That would certainly qualify as a life-changing experience …

She knocked on the door, then opened it without waiting to be invited in.

“Beck.” She walked into the room as if she’d been expected. “Mickey.”

“Agent Shields.” Mickey, his eyes dark and angry, glared at her from across the room. “I was just leaving. Unless, of course, the chief here has any more questions…? I am free to leave, aren’t I?”