Murder Before Marriage Read online

  “What did I miss?” asked Eric, cell phone in hand.

  “The parents are here.” Rowen pointed in their direction. Ben was leading them away, into a room where they would have more privacy.

  “Ah. I thought that might be who they were,” Eric said quietly, watching them go. “They passed me on their way in. It looked like they were in a hurry. Poor people. Can you imagine?”

  Rowen shook her head. She didn’t have children of her own, didn’t have any plans in the foreseeable future to acquire any. The biggest loss she had gone through was the loss of her grandmother and the loss of a pet. The idea of losing someone you weren’t meant to outlive seemed so painful it was almost abstract. “Did you call Margo?” asked Rose.

  “Hmm?” Eric tore his eyes from the parents. “Oh, yeah.” He raised his cell phone like it would back him up. “She said she’s getting ready and that she’d call me back once she was ready.”

  “Ready for what?” asked Sutton. Rowen hadn’t missed the way he perked up at the mention of Margo. Margo had a not so secret crush on him, despite the fact that she was seeing another man. Margo was like that. It was hard for her to settle down into a single relationship. She had been married once. It was a wonder even that had lasted as long as it did.

  “Ready for the day, I would assume.” Eric shrugged.

  “Probably,” Rowen agreed. “She takes forever to get ready.” Even during an emergency like this, it would be hard to coax her out of the door without her hair styled, her makeup on, and her outfit just so. “If we’re lucky, she’ll get to Julia within the next couple of hours.” Rowen wasn’t sure she liked their odds. She would have to keep a close eye on the news. The question was if she should go ahead and talk to Julia Martinez herself. If she did, what would she even say? It was Margo who had the best working relationship with her. Rowen’s relationship with the woman was adversarial at best.

  “Do you think the person who found the body is likely to let news of all this get out?” asked Rose, looking to Sutton.

  “I—” began Sutton, but of course he couldn’t answer that question with any great degree of accuracy. “We encouraged her not to.”

  That wasn’t what Rowen wanted to hear, but she didn’t say as much. Instead, her attention was caught by movement at the door Ben had gone through. He was emerging, his expression a tired one. He motioned one of his men to take his place. He seemed intent on returning to Rowen and his wife. “What happened?” asked Rowen.

  Ben shrugged his shoulders and shook his head helplessly. “Their son just died. They’re upset.” It was the obvious truth of the matter. “They want to see their daughter. She’s all they have left, the only child that is.”

  “You didn’t take them to see her, though?” It was selfish, but Rowen hoped he hadn’t. She would be offended if he had allowed them to see Tina but wouldn’t let her or the rest of her family see Peony. Obviously, the parents were the ones who deserved the most emotional consideration, but her feelings on the matter were what they were.

  “Emotions are running too high right now,” said Ben, looking to Sutton as he spoke. It looked like he wanted his words to serve a dual purpose. He wanted Sutton to know he wanted the groups separated. “I can’t legally keep them apart, but I’m strongly encouraging it for now. It’s not just a matter of getting a statement. It’s also what Tina wants.”

  “She doesn’t want to be around her parents?” Rowen found that something of a surprise.

  “She doesn’t want to face them right now.” Ben looked from Sutton to Rowen. “If you wouldn’t mind taking charge here and you wouldn’t mind accompanying me to the hospital…”

  It took Rowen a moment to realize Ben had changed the subject a bit. “Oh,” she said, once she realized what he was getting at. He wanted her to try and communicate with Kyle, if he was even still lingering among them. It was a talent Rowen had. She found it easier to communicate with the dead than the rest of her family. It was a great help when investigating murders though not as much of a help as one might think. Suddenly being a spirit was very traumatizing for most. They had difficulties acclimating to their new state of being. Many refused to believe they had even been killed. The ones that accepted their death were still prone to bias as to who had killed them. They might not be reliable. They might not even know who their killer was. Still, it was always worth giving it a shot. Rowen glanced at Eric and Rose before answering. She wasn’t sure what her heading to the mortuary with Ben meant for them. “Sure. I don’t mind.”

  Sutton snorted, drawing everyone’s attention but especially that of his boss. “Do you have something to say?” Ben asked, his tone growing stern.

  Sutton stood up a little straighter. His expression was still arranged in that scowl of his. “I was just thinking to myself, Sir. I was wondering if the deceased parents would be okay with…” Sutton trailed off before motioning vaguely at Rowen.

  Rowen fought down the urge to say something unkind to Sutton. From the look of it, Ben was swallowing down a similar reaction. “Do you have a problem with that decision?” he asked. To Rowen it sounded like he was making a point to keep his tone impartial. “Tell me if you have an objection. This is partly why I hired you.”

  Sutton turned away from Ben to look at the rooms containing both Tina and her parents. He turned back with a sigh. “I trust your judgment, Sir.” Whatever his opinion of Rowen, it had to be difficult for him to deny she had a good track record when working with Ben.

  Ben nodded. “I appreciate that.” He looked to Rowen next. “Well? Are you ready to go?”

  Chapter Eight

  Eric joined Rowen in Ben’s car, but Rose stayed behind. She wanted to be there in case Channel 2 showed up, she said. It also seemed prudent to stay for Peony. Willow was there, but Willow wasn’t the best decision maker. It wasn’t a bad idea to have Rose stick around. She’d be invaluable should things go sideways. Besides, she might be a comfort to Tina and Peony. She was good at that. Comforting people.

  The hospital mortuary wasn’t a place Rowen enjoyed visiting. She hated hospitals in general, not that she knew of anyone who actually liked hospitals. In her case it was little more than a gloomy, clinical atmosphere and an association of bad memories. There were emotions tied to the place for Rowen, ones she felt viscerally. It was a skill shared by all natural born Greensmiths, if you could even call it a skill. Often, it was more like an inconvenience. Strong emotions sank into the foundations of a place. Rowen could feel rage and despair and sadness like anyone else would feel a nasty draft. Sometimes the emotions Rowen picked up on were pleasant in nature. That wasn’t the case with hospitals. There was too much grief in hospitals, too much anxiety. Rowen could feel it pressing down on her heart as they rode the elevator to the morgue.

  “Anything else I should know?” Rowen asked as the metal box they were in took them down to the basement level.

  Ben shook his head. “Let’s see what you pick up on.” That meant there was more to say, but he didn’t want to say it yet.

  Eric placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder. He knew how she felt about this sort of place. She raised her own hand and rested it over his, appreciative.

  The elevator doors opened. Ben led the way out and down the hall. He exchanged a few words with a bored-looking security guard before they were allowed inside. They were alone in the large, sterile room. That was good. Rowen didn’t like doing this sort of thing around others. She took a deep and cleansing breath. “All right,” she said, slapping her hands together once. “Where is he?”

  Ben pointed. “I had an attendant leave this open for me. He should be back soon. Work quick, if you’re able. I understand if you can’t get an answer.”

  Rowen walked to where the body was laid out. Ben had uncovered it. To say the sight was unpleasant would be putting things mildly. Rowen wasn’t particularly squeamish. She had seen her fair share of dead bodies, especially since moving back to the town of Lainswich and becoming Rowen: Mystery-solver Extraordinair
e. There was still something disarming about looking down upon a body she had seen alive not all that long ago. It was uncanny. She hadn’t liked Kyle, but she certainly wouldn’t wish him dead. There were very few people she actually wished dead. She had barely known Kyle. What she had known, she had hated but still… “Did they already do the autopsy?”

  “More or less,” said Ben, going to stand across from her on the other side of the body. “That is to say they’re still running tests. The results for all of those won’t be back until tomorrow. We’re keeping the body here until then, just in case more tests need to be run.”

  Rowen nodded. The body wasn’t fully uncovered. A sheet started at the pectoral muscles. She could make out the sutured skin where the Y-incision had been made. Rowen wasn’t feeling any immediate signs of consciousness from the body. She closed her eyes to concentrate. Gradually, she allowed her mind to expand, searching, probing. Kyle? She thought the name. She thought it more than once. No one replied. That wasn’t unusual. She didn’t always get answers. Sometimes the dead stayed with their bodies. Sometimes they didn’t. It depended on the person really. It was always better for the deceased if they went ahead and moved on as soon as possible. At least that’s what Rowen personally believed. She didn’t know precisely what happened to people after they moved on to whatever awaited them after this life. She did know that if they remained dead in the world of the living they had a tendency to grow frustrated and emotionally unstable. Rowen thought Kyle’s name again, but there was still no answer. She reminded herself that was for the best, even if it did make solving the mystery of what had happened to him all the more difficult.

  “I don’t think he’s here,” Rowen said to the rest of the room. She wasn’t looking at them, but she could feel their eyes upon her. They were waiting for some kind of update from her. Neither of them had a knack for communicating with the dead like she could. She kept her eyes on the body and tried to see what else she could sense. She was good for more than just trying to communicate with spirits.

  There were some other things buzzing around Kyle’s body like electricity. “Hmm.” Rowen tried concentrating on those feelings next. She could make out certain things immediately. “He died frightened.” Yes, there was certainly a great deal of anxiety that was still there.

  “That doesn’t sound unusual,” said Ben.

  Rowen shook her head. “This is a little more than that. It’s like… He knew it was coming but there was nothing he could do about it. What was his cause of death again?” Rowen recalled that she hadn’t been told in the first place almost as soon as those words had left her mouth.

  “There’s no conclusive answer to that question yet,” said Ben. The way he said it suggested that he either knew or had his suspicions. Not that he shared those with her.

  Rowen sighed and looked at the body again. “He… Hmm… I don’t know. The anxiety is sort of overpowering here.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Ben. He was standing a few feet away from the body, his back to a wall and his arms over his chest.

  “I mean it’s more than just his death. There’s a lot of anxiety here.”

  “I’m not sure I follow.”

  Rowen raised her shoulders in a shrug. She wasn’t quite sure how to explain it herself. “He was scared about something. It wasn’t his death… Well, it wasn’t just his death. He was scared before that.” She paused. “Maybe scared is the wrong word. He was nervous. Something was on his mind, and he was dwelling on it.”

  “You can tell all that?”

  “It’s just an educated guess.” Rowen wasn’t sure how to explain the vibes she was getting precisely. It was a focused kind of anxiety. “He was worried”

  “What about?”

  “If I knew that I would tell you.” Rowen looked up from the body and locked eyes with Ben. She wanted some answers of her own now. She had told him what she knew, now it was his turn.

  “Is that all the body is telling you?” asked Ben, like he might be holding something out on her.

  “I’m not being told a whole heck of a lot by anyone about anything.” Rowen looked to her husband. “What about you?” She knew that he had some magical potential within him. A modicum of it was in his blood. She tried to encourage Eric to hone those abilities when she could. He wasn’t terribly confident in them.

  Eric shook his head. “I’m not picking up anything,” he said quickly. A little too quickly. He clearly didn’t like eyes on him about this sort of thing. Magical muscles weren’t ones he much cared to flex.

  “Ah well.” Rowen shrugged and looked again to Ben. “There you have it. We’ve told you what we can. Care to return the favor?”

  “I didn’t realize we were doing this like anyone was owed a favor. I thought we were just trying to solve a murder here.” Ben sighed and shared a bit of information with her anyway. “They went to school together.”

  “Who?” Rowen asked before realizing the obvious. “Oh, right. Of course. Kyle was in school with us. He would have had to have been.” Rowen wasn’t sure how she could have imagined otherwise.

  “Not you, I don’t think.” Ben returned to the body and took the sheet in hand, covering poor Kyle back up. “He went to school in Tarricville until the year we graduated. His parents sent him there because of their football team.”

  The football team in Lainswich wasn’t much to speak of. That was possibly because folks didn’t come or go from Lainswich very often. It was hard to make it as a sports team if playing other schools was next to impossible. “How do you know that?”

  “Tina told me as much when I asked.”

  “So why did he move back here?”

  “He decided he didn’t want to play football anymore. I suppose his parents didn’t see much point in shipping him off to a special school after that, so he started attending school locally.”

  “And was his personality as glowing as it is now?” Rowen asked before realizing what was wrong with that question. She swallowed. “Sorry… Was.” She might not have liked Kyle in life but it felt odd not to afford him any respect now that he was dead—especially with his body in the room with her like it was. The soul might have moved on, but that didn’t make it feel any less wrong.

  “If you’re asking whether or not he and your cousin ever butted heads, yes. They didn’t get along much from the sound of it. Of course, Tina and your sister didn’t get along either at that point. If I remember correctly, Tina was quite popular with her fellow schoolmates in those days. She teased you and your family pretty mercilessly.”

  “People change.” Rowen had more or less forgiven Tina for their shared history. It was a long time ago, and Tina had changed. At the very least, she had stopped caring so much about what others thought of her. That had gone a long way toward making Tina much more tolerable as a person. “And anyway, I hope you’re not trying to suggest Peony might have had something to do with this murder.”

  “I’m just letting you know the facts,” Ben said quickly, holding up his hands in innocence. “I’m just presenting them to you and letting you draw your own conclusions. I just want you to know that others will be drawing conclusions from all that as well, and you know people around here are predisposed to pointing the finger at you and your family if they can get away with it.”

  “That’s hardly grounds to presume guilt by or arrest anyone on,” Eric pointed out.

  Ben nodded. “Sure, but that doesn’t mean that the town won’t get all riled up about things. It’s something worth keeping in mind.”

  “Better safe than sorry,” Rowen agreed. Sometimes it felt like she and her family were guilty until proven innocent in Lainswich, but it was what it was. “Are you going to want our help in all this?” She motioned vaguely at Kyle’s body. “Beyond what we’re doing tonight, I mean.”

  Ben nodded. “I think so. You’re close to this. I have a feeling you’ll start getting answers before my men do.”

  That got a smirk from Eric. “You starting to get psychi
c feelings now too? Been around the Greensmiths too long?”

  “Just long enough to make educated guesses,” Ben replied with the beginnings of a smile. “I can’t bring you on officially. You’re too close to the people I’m investigating. I hope you’ll still come straight to me with anything you find out… unofficially.”

  “Unofficially,” Rowen repeated with a nod. “Sure. Of course. Don’t we always?”

  “I have my doubts about that,” Eric muttered. “I appreciate it. Anything else you want to tell me before we head back to the station?”

  Rowen glanced back at Kyle, to the shape of his body beneath the white sheet. She considered it in silence for several long moments. “No, I guess not. Not right now anyway. There isn’t anything that comes to… Oh, well… I guess there is one thing.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Kyle, he uh…” Rowen trailed off. She wasn’t sure if this actually tied into anything. Mentioning it could make trouble for her later on. She didn’t care about inconveniencing her father or the new woman he was sweet on. What she did care about was wasting her time getting mixed up with those two. Letting her work overlap with them felt like a bad idea. Even so, she couldn’t very well ignore it. “Kyle worked for a woman that’s dating my father.”

  “What?” Ben raised an eyebrow. Apparently, that was news to him.

  “Well, not dating exactly. I guess, technically, they’re engaged.”

  “Your father’s engaged to…” Ben trailed off with a frown. He reached for the phone in his pocket. “What was her name again?”

  “Gabriella. Well, she likes to be called Gaby.” Rowen shrugged. “I don’t remember her last name.”

  “She’s in Lainswich right now?”

  “Last time I checked.”

  “We haven’t been able to reach her yet. I had assumed Kyle was here to visit with his family. I didn’t realize he had come here on business.”

  “Maybe it’s a little of both. I wouldn’t know. All I know is that he worked for that woman.” Rowen pulled her own cellphone out. “Here, I can try to get in touch with them if you want.”