Experimentally, she reached out and felt the empty side of the bed. Having Zack’s side of the bed empty wasn’t too jarring because he was often not there when she went to sleep because of his work shifts. But now, knowing that he was gone for good, the bed seemed much larger. As she stretched out and felt that empty side of the bed, she wondered when she had fallen out of love with him. It had been at least a month, she knew that for sure. But she’d said nothing in the hopes that whatever had existed between them might resurface.
Instead, things had gotten worse. She often thought that Zack had sensed her becoming more distant as her feelings had died down. But Zack was not the type to acknowledge such a thing. He avoided conflict at all costs and, as much as she hated to admit it, she was pretty sure he would have stuck around for as long as possible just because he feared change and was too lazy to move out.
As she sorted through all of these things, her cell phone rang. Great, she thought. So much for sleep.
She switched her lamp back on, fully expecting to see Nelson’s or Porter’s number on her display. Or maybe it would be Zack, calling to ask her if he could please come back. Instead, she saw a number she did not recognize.
“Hello?” she said, doing her best not to sound tired.
“Hi, Detective White,” a man’s voice said. “This is Jared Ellington.”
“Oh, hi.”
“Did I call too late?”
“No,” she said. “What’s up? Do you have something new?”
“No, I’m afraid not. In fact, I got word tonight that we won’t have the results on that wood until morning.”
“Well, at least we know how the day will start,” she said.
“Exactly. But listen, I was wondering if you could meet me for breakfast,” he said. “I’d like to go over the case details with you. I want to make sure we’re on the same page and not missing even the smallest detail.”
“Sure,” she said. “What time do you – ”
She stopped here, looking toward her bedroom door.
For a split second, she’d heard something move out there. Once again, she’d heard that damned floorboard creak. But more than that, she’d heard a shuffling sound. Slowly, she got out of bed, still holding the phone to her ear.
“White, you still there?” Ellington asked.
“Yes, I’m here,” she said. “Sorry. I was asking what time you’d want to meet.”
“How about seven o’clock at Carol’s Diner? You know it?”
“I do,” she said, walking to the doorway. She looked out and saw only shadows and dark, muted outlines. “And seven sounds good.”
“Great,” he said. “I’ll see you then.”
She barely heard him as she stepped out of her bedroom and into the small hallway that led to the kitchen. Still, she managed to get out a “Sounds good,” before hanging up.
She cut on the hallway light, revealing the kitchen and making the living room look murky. Just like several nights ago, there was no one there. But, just to make sure, she walked into the living room and cut on the light.
Of course, there was no one there. The room offered no places to hide and the only thing unchanged about it was the missing Xbox that Zack had taken with him. Mackenzie looked around the room one more time, not liking the fact that she had spooked so easily. She even walked across the creaky board, testing its noise and comparing it to what she had heard.
She checked the lock on the front door and then headed back to her bedroom. She looked back behind her one more time before cutting out the lights and returning to sleep. Before she turned her lamp off, she took her service pistol out of the bedside drawer and placed it on top, within arm’s reach.
She looked at it in the gloom of the bedroom, knowing that she’d not need it but feeling safer that it was right there, in plain sight.
What was happening to her?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Daddy? Daddy, it’s me. Wake up.”
Mackenzie stepped into the bedroom and braced herself, turning from the sight of her dead father.
“What happened, Daddy?”
Her sister was in the room, too, standing on the other side of the bed, looking at their father with a disappointed look on her face.
“Steph, what happened?” Mackenzie asked.
“He called out for you and you didn’t come. This is your fault.”
“No!”
Mackenzie stepped forward again and then, knowing it was lunacy to do so, she still crawled onto the bed and snuggled up next to her father. Soon, she knew, his flesh would be cold and pale.
Mackenzie woke with a start, the nightmare jarring her awake at 3:12 AM, matted in sweat. She sat there, breathing hard, and despite herself, she started to cry.
She missed her dad so much that it hurt.
She sat there, alone, crying herself to sleep.
But it would be hours, she knew, before she fell back asleep. If at all.
In a strange way, she yearned to throw herself back into the case. Somehow, that was less painful.
When Mackenzie arrived at Carol’s Diner a few hours later, she was awake and alert. Looking across a small diner table at Agent Ellington, the idea of how much her nightmare had affected her, of how easily she had gotten spooked last night, was embarrassing. What in the hell was wrong with her?
She knew what it was. The case was getting to her, stirring up old memories she thought she had laid to rest. It was affecting the way she lived. She’d heard of this happening to others before but had never experienced it herself until now.
She wondered if Ellington had ever experienced it. From her side of the table, he looked well-polished and professional – the spitting image of what Mackenzie expected an FBI agent to be. He was well built but not massive, confident but not cocky. It was hard to imagine him being rattled by much of anything.
He caught her looking and rather than looking away embarrassed, she held his gaze.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing, really,” she said. “I’m just wondering what it’s like to know that with a single phone call, you can get the Bureau looking into something that it would take me several hours to convince the local PD to look into.”
“It’s not always that smooth,” Ellington said.
“Well, with this case, the Bureau seems motivated,” Mackenzie pointed out.
“The ritualistic set-up of the murder scenes practically screams serial killer,” he said. “And now, with another body discovered, it seems that’s exactly what we have.”
“And has Nelson been accommodating?” she asked.
Ellington smiled and it showed signs of a subtle charm lurking under his finely composed exterior. “He’s trying to be. Sometimes the small-town mentality is hard to break out of.”
“Don’t I know it,” Mackenzie said.
The waitress came by to take their orders. Mackenzie opted for a veggie omelet while Ellington ordered a huge breakfast platter. With that distraction over, Ellington clasped his hands together and leaned forward.
“So,” he said. “Where do we stand on this?”
Mackenzie knew he was giving her a chance to show him how she worked. It was in his tone and the slight smile that barely touched the edges of his mouth. He was ruggedly handsome and Mackenzie was slightly uncomfortable with how often her eyes were drawn to his mouth.
“We have to wait on the leads for now and really study them,” she said. “The last time we had what we thought was a promising lead, we were dead wrong.”
“But you busted a guy that was selling kiddie porn,” Ellington pointed out. “So it wasn’t a total waste.”
“That’s true. But still, I’m going to assume you’ve noticed the hierarchy of our local PD. If I don’t figure this out soon, I’ll be stuck in my position for a very long time.”