Cross My Heart (Detectives Kane and Alton)

“It’s Maggie from the front counter. Sam Cross has arrived. Where do you want me to send him?”

Jenna glanced at Kane. “Just a second. He’s early.” She covered the mouthpiece. “Do you want to take Sam Cross to the interview room? You’ll need to be on hand to interview Adams. I’ll send Rio to meet Wolfe and do the search. I’d rather not hold up Rowley this afternoon, he should get home to Sandy.”

“Not a problem.” Kane looked at her. “I hope Cross won’t cause a problem.”

“It’s only me he has trouble with.” Jenna uncovered the phone to speak to Maggie. “Kane is on his way. Thanks Maggie.” She put down the phone and chewed on her bottom lip. “I’m out of things to do. I’ve updated the files. If you don’t need me, I might drop by Marvelous Cookies. I’ve been itching to see inside. Maggie has been telling everyone how great they are. The shop is down the alleyway beside the general store. It’s been made to look like a store from the eighteenth century. I figure you’ll want a box of their finest?”

“I sure will, but not many can make chocolate chip cookies like you, Jenna.” Kane smiled at her, finished his coffee, and stood. “As it’s getting late, I wonder if you could do something for me, as you’re heading downtown?”

Jenna nodded. “Of course, what is it?”

“I ordered a box of gun cleaning patches and they called to tell me they’d arrived.” He sighed. “The gun supplies store will be closed before we leave here tonight. Could you go by and get them for me? I paid for them already.”

“Not a problem.” Jenna pushed to her feet. “I’ll go now. I’ll be back in twenty minutes max.” She grabbed her jacket, followed him out the door and down the stairs. She nodded at Sam Cross waiting at the counter. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Deputy Kane will take you to your client.”

When Kane headed to the interview room with Sam Cross, Jenna hunted down Zac Rio. “I have to go out for a few minutes. Kane has a search warrant for Riley Adams’ home and vehicle. Contact Wolfe and see if he will go with you to conduct the search. Get a copy of the paperwork from Kane and head out there as soon as possible. Adams lives out Snowberry Way but his truck is parked out front of the Sunset Valley nursing home. Adams’ keys are in the property room.” She sighed. “If Wolfe can’t go with you, ask Colt Webber. You know the drill: glove up, take photographs, bag all evidence.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Rio picked up his phone.

Jenna had headed out the door pulling on her jacket when a bark came from behind her. She turned to see Duke looking at her expectantly. “Okay, come on.” She hurried out the door.

She headed down Main with Duke on her heels. The town was unusually quiet. Another storm had been forecast for later and perhaps people had made their way home earlier than usual. A few people moved along the sidewalk, like her bundled up against the oncoming chill of night. Hurrying along, she admired the Halloween decorations filling the storefronts. Garlands of plastic pumpkins had been strung between the lampposts and gave the town a festive look. The afternoon was growing late, and mist poured from the river to overflow through town like a swirling snake. It seemed almost alive, a strange white beast of the night, changing into shapes and bending the imagination. It billowed toward Jenna as a vehicle drove through it, sending it toward her in great waves of white diaphanous creepiness.

The mist had added a surreal sensation to Halloween every year since she’d arrived in town. It was never just one night of celebration in Black Rock Falls. Decorations started to appear two weeks or more before October 31, and this year they had taken on a new level of bizarre. A shiver went down her spine at the overly realistic corpses sitting in chairs in people’s front yards and the grinning skeletons in various stages of dismemberment. It would seem that macabre had become the new normal.

After everything she’d seen since moving to Black Rock Falls, she would have thought her skin would have thickened considerably and she’d become immune to the horrors of murder and mayhem, but in truth, she’d never get used to it and she still believed in ghosts. She glanced down at Duke, glad to have his company as she made her way to the gun supplies store. She moved inside, surprised to see the store almost empty, and hurried to the counter. “Hi, you have an order for Dave Kane?”

“Sure thing, he said he’d be by this afternoon, Sheriff.” The man behind the counter was elderly, with weather-beaten, leathery skin and a shock of white hair. His dark brown eyes twinkled at her. “It’s quiet this afternoon. Strange for this time of the year. Most are out looking at the decorations. I figure it’s the storm warning. Those dry storms are dangerous.” He took a packet from behind the counter, slid it into a shopping bag, and handed it to her. “There you go.”

Jenna took the bag and smiled at him. “Thank you.” She headed out of the store. “Come on, Duke, stay close now. I don’t want to lose you in the mist.”

She walked two blocks down Main, crossing twice before she came to the alleyway beside the general store. Everything possible had been done to create an old-world atmosphere, right down to cobblestones and a replica of a gaslit street lamp. The store’s round windows displayed the treats within, not just cookies of every shape, flavor, and size, but also enough cakes and muffins to keep a smile on Kane’s face for life. She chuckled and, after telling Duke to sit outside, pushed open the door. A bell tinkled above her head and it was as if she’d walked back in time. Even the woman serving behind the counter had dressed the part. A dust cap covered a mass of brown curls, and her dress, straight out of the eighteenth century, brushed the floor when she walked.

Jenna nodded at her and perused the display. The cabinets still had a few cakes on the glass shelves, but the remaining cookies came wrapped or in decorative tins. She selected an assortment of cakes and took three packs of cookies. With them safely in the bag with Kane’s parcel, she pushed open the door. As she stepped outside, Duke made a whining sound. “You can have a cookie when we get back to the office.”

A thick white blanket of fog had risen to her knees, almost obscuring the dog. In the short time she’d been inside the store, everything had c

hanged. All around her buildings cast deep shadows, blocking the late afternoon sun, and concealing the far end of the alleyway joining Main to Maple. From between the buildings, the remaining beams of watery light skipped over the ever-moving band of water vapor, creating strange ethereal shapes. When Duke whined again, she patted her leg. “Let’s go. Come on, boy.”

Before she could take a step, a movement deep in the alleyway swirled the mist around her, sending a surge of ghostly dancers in her direction. Every hair on her body stood to attention as the figure of a man, wearing a cowboy hat and a slicker, emerged from the gloom. The air seemed to distort as the mist curled around him. Jenna’s hand went to her waist to grab her Maglite but came up empty. She’d left her heavy, duty belt back at the office, opting for a shoulder holster for the short trip to the store. Without hesitation, she slid her hand inside her jacket and closed her palm around the handle of her Glock. Heart thundering in her chest, she peered into the distorted alleyway, trying to make sense of what was in front of her. A hint of a breeze brushed her cheek like the ice-cold touch of a corpse as she stared at the tall figure. He stood silent, feet apart and back straight like a gunslinger from the old west as if he was planning on drawing down on her. Jenna swallowed hard. Was he really there or was her mind playing tricks on her? As the mist poured over him, almost burying him from sight, he seemed to dissolve and then become whole again. Could he be an illusion, or a figment of her overactive imagination?

Duke pressed against her leg and she reached down to pat him, glad of the solid, warm strength of him. He trembled under her fingers, then a rumble went through his chest, his hackles raised, and every muscle became taut and ready to fight. A wave of uncertainty gripped her and she dragged her eyes away from the man to glance down at him. “You see him too, don’t you? Is that the same man that was in my yard, or is he locked up in an interview room back at the office?”

Heart pounding, Jenna rested one hand on her weapon and peered back into the darkness, but the man had vanished, dissipating into the breeze like a puff of smoke. Putting her faith in her Glock, she placed the bag on the ground and moved deeper into the alleyway but stopped when dumpsters at the far end obscured her view. She stood listening, but not a breath of sound came from the darkness. She held her weapon steady in both hands. “This is Sheriff Alton. Come out and show yourself.”

Nothing.

The mist moved, appearing to mimic the swish of a slicker, but the shadows had swallowed the man, imaginary or not. Backing toward the cookie store, she noticed that the owner had turned the sign on the door to Closed. She swallowed the sudden rush of fear tightening her gut. She collected the bag and continued to back down the alleyway. As she stepped back onto Main, laughter, deep and sinister, carried on the night air.

Twenty-Seven

Kane waited patiently in the interview room for Sam Cross to read through the search warrants. The lawyer said nothing, only raised his eyebrows once or twice, gave Kane a nod, and then passed the documents to his client, Riley Adams. Kane took his copies and stepped outside to hand them to Deputy Rio. “Wolfe and his team will do a forensic sweep of the house and vehicle. You’ll need to record the search and update the files before you head home tonight.”

“Sure, I have my equipment in my truck.” Rio took the documents and dangled a set of keys from his fingertips. “I have Adams’ keys. It will be too dark by the time we search the house to work on the vehicle. Wolfe said he’d be taking the truck to his office and he’ll get to it later this evening. Do you want me to remain with him during the vehicle search?”

Kane shook his head. “It’s not necessary. Colt Webber is a badge-holding deputy and he’ll be able to capture the scene. Wolfe was at one time too, but he was a little overqualified for this office.”

“I can imagine.” Rio’s eyebrows met in the middle in a frown. “Why didn’t he get an ME’s job at the time?”