Cold Hearts

“Good. You’re clocked out, so as soon as you finish up, go home and get some sleep. I might need you again soon, and you need some rest.”

Earl shuddered. “Oh, hell, Chief. I don’t wanna sleep. All I’ll see when I close my eyes is the body.”

Trey sighed. “When you’re through, go write up your report and go home anyway. I’ll call if I need you.”

Earl began tying off the crime-scene tape as Trey backtracked to where Lissa was sitting. When he touched her shoulder, she screamed, then leaped to her feet.

Trey sighed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Lissa’s eyes were swollen from crying.

“My car... It fell. He stayed...should have said no. Oh, my God, it’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not,” Trey said. “Come sit in my car. I’ll take you home later.”

The suggestion seemed to shake her out of her hysteria. She began pulling herself together, wiping tears off her cheeks and pushing wayward curls from her forehead.

“No, no, I can’t go home. I need to get to school.”

“I don’t think you’re in any shape to—”

“I’ll be okay.” She shuddered, then drew a deep breath. “I don’t want to go home. I need to think of something besides what I saw,” she said, and dug a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose.

“Then, for the time being, take a seat in my car.”

“Yes, thank you,” she said, before gathering up her things and moving toward the police cruiser on shaky legs as Trey headed back to the gas station. He went straight into the garage and then stopped, shocked to the core.

“Dear God,” he muttered. He gritted his teeth and began looking at everything but the body.

At the outset, it seemed obvious the lift had failed. It happened. He would have to check on the whereabouts of the other mechanics who worked for Paul to see if they’d been with him earlier. After a quick survey of the garage, he was disappointed to find out there was no security camera on the premises. It would have helped to know if Paul had been alone. He would send his officers to check if any cameras from surrounding businesses had a view of the station. He met Carl and Lonnie on his way out.

“Carl, is that department camera still in your cruiser?”

“Yes, sir,” Carl said.

“You know what to do. Get plenty of pictures from every angle, and dust the control to the hydraulic lift and the front door for prints. Lonnie, you make sure and keep this scene clear. The coroner will be showing up in a couple of hours.”

Lonnie’s eyes widened. “Are you saying—”

“I’m just covering all the bases,” Trey said.

“Yes, sir,” Lonnie said, adding, “This just feels so weird. We don’t have stuff like this happen here in Mystic, and now two of our locals are dead within a month, although Dick Phillips’ death wasn’t an accident.”

“Yes, and we need to make damn sure this was an accident before we close this case, understand?”

Both officers nodded.

“You and Carl stay on the premises until the coroner is finished, and make sure this place is locked before you leave. Since the lift failed, you may need to call in the fire department to help the coroner remove the body.”

“Yes, sir,” Lonnie said.

One issue dealt with, Trey thought. Now he needed to talk to Lissa.

Two

Trey’s phone rang as he was heading for his cruiser. He glanced at the caller ID and frowned as he answered.

“Hello, Mom. What’s up?” he asked.

Betsy Jakes’ voice was shaking. “Is it true Paul Jackson is dead?”

He paused near the back of his cruiser.

“Damn, bad news spreads fast in small towns. Yes, but I have yet to notify the next of kin, so I need to do that now before someone does it for me.”

He heard his mother gasp, then begin moaning as if in great pain.

Trey frowned. “Mom?”

When the line went dead, he realized she’d hung up on him. His frown deepened. When Dick Phillips had died, she had scared him with her behavior, although he’d chalked up her reaction to being the one who’d found his body. Now she seemed on the verge of going down that road again. Damn it. He needed to be in three places at once. Then he thought of his fiancée, Dick Phillips’ daughter, Dallas. She could go check on his mother.

He made a quick call home.

Dallas answered on the second ring. “Hey, honey, did you forget something?”

“No. Shit hit the fan early today. Paul Jackson is dead. Looks like the lift fell on him. Would you please go check on Mom, and if she’s acting weird, stay with her for a little while until I can get over there? I need to talk to her, but I can’t get over there for a while.”

Dallas was horrified. With her father’s murder still fresh in her mind, she immediately empathized.

“Yes, I’m on my way. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I’ll stay with her until you can get there.”

“Thanks,” he said, then pocketed his phone and got in the car with Lissa.

It appeared she’d been doing a repair job on her makeup. Her eyes were still red and slightly swollen, but she had reapplied some makeup and seemed calmer.

“Are you sure you want to go to work?” Trey asked.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said. “If I need to sign anything, just call the office and leave me a message. I can drop by the station after school.”

“Earl said you already gave him your statement?” he said as he started the car and pulled away.

She nodded. “There wasn’t much to tell. I went in to see if my car was ready and...” She swallowed around the lump in her throat, then took a deep breath. “I went in and saw what had happened. I ran back out crying. My friend Margaret Lewis called the police.”

“Did she go inside?” Trey asked.

Her voice was shaking again. “Oh, no, no one else did except your officer.”

“I’ll ask you not to talk about the details, okay?”

She shuddered. “Of course.”

A few moments later he turned the corner and pulled up to the front walk of the school building.

“So here you are. I still think you should have gone home.”

She gave him a brief smile. “Thank you for the ride,” she said, jumping out and fumbling with her things as she walked away.

Trey drove back to the station. He wanted the privacy of his office to call Paul’s son and was dreading this call almost as much as the one he’d made to Dallas when Dick Phillips’ body was discovered.

Inside, he sat down behind his desk, searched online for Jackson Lumber in Summerton and said a quick prayer.

* * *

Mack Jackson was outside in the breezeway of his lumberyard, watching one of his employees loading up an order. He eyed the short line of trucks and pickups behind it, four of which were also being loaded. After satisfying himself that all his customers were being helped, he headed back into the main building and then down the hall toward his office.

He was well liked by his employees and was one of Summerton’s most eligible bachelors. He had no interest in changing that. He stayed friendly but kept everything casual when it came to feminine companions. His bookkeeper, a middle-aged woman named Bella Garfield, had told him that he looked like a dark-haired Daniel Craig, which always made him grin. Being compared to the current James Bond wasn’t a bad thing.

He paused in the hallway to get a can of Coke from the machine and had just popped the top when Bella stepped out into the hall and waved him down.

“Mack! Phone call for you on line four.”

“Thanks,” he said, lengthening his stride. He shut the door behind him and set the can on his desk as he picked up the call. “This is Mack. How can I help you?”

“Mack, this is Trey Jakes.”

Mack smiled as he plopped down in his chair. “Well, hello, stranger. What can I do for you?”

“I’m afraid I have some bad news. Are you alone?”

Mack’s smile disappeared. “Yes, I’m alone. What’s happened?”

“I’m so sorry to have to tell you, but your father was found dead in his shop this morning.”

Trying to make sense of what he’d been told, Mack reeled as if he’d been slapped.

“What? No! Oh, God, no! Was it a heart attack? Did—”

“No, Mack. No heart attack.” Trey braced himself for the rest. “He was working on a car late last night, and it appears the lift failed and crushed him beneath it.”

When Mack went silent, Trey didn’t know what to think. “Mack? Mack?”

Mack’s voice was shaking, and his eyes were so full of tears he couldn’t see his desk. “I’m on my way.”

“Look, Mack, the coroner isn’t here yet and—”

“Are you telling me he’s still there? Under the car?”

“It’s procedure in an unattended death. The coroner has to see the scene intact.”

“Are you implying it wasn’t an accident?” Mack asked.

“No, I’m not implying anything, but it’s my job not to assume anything, either.”

“I hear you—now you hear me. I’ll be there.”

“No, man, you don’t want—”

The line went dead in Trey’s ear. He sighed. This was the second time that morning someone had hung up on him. He left the police station through the back door and returned to the scene of the accident.

* * *

It took Mack less than thirty minutes to put the lumberyard into his sympathetic manager’s hands and go home and pack. He’d made the drive from Summerton to Mystic countless times, but never like this. This time he was scared to go home.

Once, when he was six, he got mad because he couldn’t go to his grandparents’ house and ran away. He didn’t get far before he realized he didn’t know how to get there, so he stopped, then was scared to go home because he was afraid of the consequences. He felt like that now, afraid to go home because of the consequences awaiting him.

He was also bothered by how his father had died. He had been such a stickler for safety in the garage that this scenario seemed improbable. Of course hydraulic lifts could fail, but he’d never imagined them dropping so fast a man couldn’t escape. The horror-filled image in his head kept getting worse with each passing mile. Had his dad cried out for help and no one had heard? Had he suffered?

He didn’t know he was crying until his vision finally blurred to the point that he couldn’t see the road. He pulled over onto the shoulder, slammed his SUV into Park and then laid his head down on the steering wheel and sobbed. One image after another swept through his mind from when he was a child. All the nights when he was little and his dad had read him a story to put him to sleep. The countless holidays spent together with his parents. The year the front porch had collapsed from a heavy snow and they couldn’t use the front door for two months. Losing his mother when he was only ten. Mack and his father had become inseparable afterward. Now the thought of his father dying alone in excruciating pain was horrifying. His dad had been there for him when he’d needed him most, but in Paul’s darkest moment, he’d died alone.

Overwhelmed with grief and guilt, Mack lost track of time.

It wasn’t until a semi rolled past him so fast it shook his car that he pulled himself together and resumed his journey. He had always thought the worst thing that could ever happen to him had been when he’d found out Melissa Sherman, the girl he’d loved more than life, had aborted their baby, but he had been wrong. Today was, without question, even worse.

* * *

Trey was at the garage with his officers, absorbing the implications of what they’d just told him, when Mack Jackson arrived. Trey could tell he was in shock as he got out of his car, and his hesitant steps bore witness to how much he dreaded going into the garage, yet he kept moving forward.

Trey went to meet him. “Mack. I’m so sorry.”

Mack couldn’t look at the sympathy on Trey’s face without breaking down again, so he nodded without meeting his friend’s gaze.

When he started into the garage, Trey stopped him. “I’m telling you again, you don’t want to go in there.”

Mack looked up then, with anger in his eyes. “Hell no, I don’t want to go in there, but he’s alone, damn it! He’s alone! That’s not right. It’s just not right.”

Trey stepped back. “Then, I have to go with you. You can’t move anything. You can’t touch anything.”

“I know,” Mack said.

Mack kept his eyes on the back of Trey’s head until they were inside the garage, and then he looked down.

He saw the car, then the pool of drying blood, and then he saw a work boot, and that was enough. He turned away, and his voice was trembling with shock and emotion when he spoke.

“I see and still don’t believe. He was all about safety measures. He was careful, so damn careful,” he whispered. And then he looked up at Trey, unaware that he was crying again. “I need to stay with him. Show me where I can stand.”

Trey sighed. “Just stay where you are. The less we move around, the less likely we’ll disturb anything vital.”

“I won’t move,” Mack said, taking a stance not unlike a soldier standing guard at his post.

Trey kept his distance, giving Mack the space he obviously needed to keep his emotions contained, but at the same time he was worried. He hadn’t heard back from Dallas, so he didn’t know if his mother was okay or if she had flipped out like she had before. He didn’t know if his sister, Trina, had left for work or if she was still at the house, too. Something was up with the two men dying so close together. He could feel it.

* * *

Mack kept his gaze fixed on a dirty spot on one of the windows directly across from where he was standing and didn’t look away. He’d spent countless hours in this place growing up. It used to be his favorite place to spend time with his dad, but once they took his father’s body away, there would be little need to come back other than to tie up loose ends.

He and Trey stood without talking while the world went on around them. Through the window he could see cars driving past, people on their way to somewhere else. A kid rode by on his bicycle. A couple of men parked a few doors down and went into a used furniture store. Mack didn’t understand how life could be so ordinary out there and a living nightmare in here.

Trey kept an eye out for the coroner’s vehicle. When a blue car wheeled in and parked, and a black van with a county logo on the doors pulled in beside it, Trey pointed. “They’re here.”

Mack blinked.

“I’ll be right back,” Trey said as he strode out.

Mack watched the men getting out of their vehicles. When they opened up the back of the van, a chill swept through him. He could almost feel his father’s presence.

“They’re here, Dad. Just hang on a little longer and we’ll get you free.”

Moments later Trey came back, accompanied by a trio of men, one of whom Mack recognized as Pryor Addison, the county coroner.

Addison knew the Jacksons and was disturbed to learn what had happened to Paul, but he frowned when he saw Mack. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

“And he shouldn’t be under that car,” Mack said.

Addison sighed. “You need to step outside, son.”

“No, sir, with respect.”

Addison shrugged and went to work directing his crew as to which pictures he wanted and from what angles, and then circled the car several times trying to decide which side they needed to jack up to remove the body. Until it was out from under the car, there was nothing definitive to see. “So the lift failed?” he said.

“So we assume,” Trey said. “We haven’t moved or touched anything since the body was discovered.”

Addison looked around for the lift controls and had pictures taken of that, too. “Okay, we need to get this car off the body without causing further damage.”

Trey couldn’t get the thought out of his mind that this wasn’t an accident. Carl had already told him there were no prints on the lift control, which made no sense. There should be prints galore. Every time it went up or down someone had to use the control. Now was a good time to test it.

“Do you have a problem with me trying out the lift?” Trey asked.

Mack looked at Trey as if he’d lost his mind. “What are you saying?” he asked.

“I’m not saying anything,” Trey said. “I just need to make sure the lift is inoperable before I call in the fire department to help remove the car.”

Addison shrugged. “I have no problem with that. Either it will work or it won’t, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Trey said, and reached for the control.

The hydraulics kicked in, and the lift began moving up without a hitch.

Mack caught a glimpse of his father’s body and turned his back. Trey had been right. He didn’t want this sight burned into his memory.

The coroner frowned, and then glanced up at Trey. “What made you think to do that?” he asked.

“My officers dusted for prints. There weren’t any,” Trey said.

Mack picked up that something was wrong. “What the hell is going on here?”

Trey held up a hand. “Come outside with me...please.”

Mack left without looking back, but as soon as they got outside, he stopped.

“Talk to me, damn it. That’s my father. I have a right to know what’s happening.”

“Get in my car, Mack. I don’t intend to advertise this, and I expect you to keep quiet about it, too.”

Mack got in the police cruiser, and as soon as Trey slid behind the steering wheel, despite the state Mack was in, he started questioning him.

“What do you know about the wreck your dad was in the night he graduated from high school?”

Mack was struggling with the notion that his father’s death wasn’t an accident and was clearly unprepared for such a seemingly random question.

“What the hell does that have to do with—”

“I don’t know,” Trey snapped. “Can you answer the question or not?”

Mack shoved a shaky hand through his hair. “Sorry. I...I know it happened. I don’t know much of anything else.”

“Do you know the other people who were in it with him?”

Mack was trying to focus on this conversation when his thoughts were on what was going on inside the garage.

“No, I don’t remember. I think there were a couple more, but I don’t know if I ever knew who they were.”

“You know Dick Phillips was murdered recently,” Trey said.

“Yes, Dad told me. He was really upset and—” Mack stopped. All of a sudden the questioning clicked. “Was he one of the kids in the car with Dad?”

“Yes, along with their girlfriends. Dick’s girlfriend, Connie, died that night. She was the driver. The other girl was your dad’s girlfriend, Betsy. The same Betsy who’s now my mom.”

Mack’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Your mom? Your mom was my dad’s old girlfriend?”

Trey nodded.

“What does she say about all this?” Mack asked.

“Nothing. You may or may not know that the survivors were injured so severely that none of them had a single memory of what happened after the actual graduation ceremony.”

“Are you saying someone is after the three of them?” Mack asked.

Trey shrugged. “I can’t say that the wreck has anything to do with why Dick died, but I’m a cop, and having one man murdered who was in that wreck is one thing. Having two dead within the same month feels like more than coincidence to me.”

Mack was stunned.

“Will the coroner be able to tell if my dad was murdered?”

“I don’t know. But if we can ascertain there’s no mechanical fault with the lift, we’ll have to assume someone lowered it on him.”

“I know the company Dad used to maintain it. The information is in his office at the house. I’ll get it to you,” Mack said.

“I’d appreciate that,” Trey said. “When you go through your dad’s things, if you see anything like a journal or a diary, I need to see it.”

“I’ll go through his things, but honestly I don’t expect to find anything. We got real close after Mom died, and I’d swear on a Bible there were no secrets between us.”

Trey nodded.

“I understand, but just keep it in mind, and remember, I don’t want a word of this repeated. If these deaths are related to that wreck, the last thing we want is for the killer to be forewarned that we’ve figured out the connection.”

Mack was shaken to the core. Here he’d thought the worst thing to happen was that his father had died, but to think he might have been murdered seemed worse, almost obscene.

“Understood,” he muttered.

“So I guess you’ll be around the rest of the day?” Trey asked.

“I’ll be staying in Mystic for sure until after Dad’s services,” Mack said.

Trey frowned. “I don’t know when the coroner will release the body.”

“I understand.” Mack glanced out the window at the crowd gathered on the other side of the street. “I never did get the need to witness other people’s grief.”

“Some thrive on being the first with the latest news, true or not,” Trey said.

It was the word first that made Mack wonder who’d actually found his dad.

“Who discovered the body?”

“Melissa Sherman. That’s her car on that lift, and she took it really hard. She’s blaming herself because your dad offered to work overtime on it last night so she could have it this morning.”

Mack was in shock. He saw her face in his mind, the way she’d looked when they made love, the way she’d laughed, the way that little mole at the corner of her mouth had always drawn his gaze to the supple curves of her lips, and then the way they’d parted. It hadn’t been pretty, and he still held a serious grudge. It was inevitable that he would now be forced to see her whether he wanted to or not. How bizarre that they would be thrown together again like this.

“I didn’t know she’d moved back to town,” he said.

Trey nodded. “Just this year. She inherited the house she grew up in when her mother died. She’s teaching first grade at the elementary school.”

Mack hunched his shoulders against the sudden ache in his chest. He didn’t want to care about her, but he kept thinking how awful it must have been for her to be the one who found the body. She had always loved his dad, and now she was blaming herself. He couldn’t let that go.

“Will you talk to her about the lift?” Mack asked.

“At this point I’m not saying anything more until it’s been checked out, and you can’t say anything about what we talked about, either. Not even to make her feel better. We’ll know the truth soon enough.”

Mack nodded. “I understand, but I don’t think it’s fair for someone to be living with misplaced guilt, that’s all.”

“You can talk to her all you want, but not about this,” Trey said. “Again, I’m very sorry for your loss. I’ll make sure the coroner’s office has your contact information. They’ll notify you when they release the body. Here’s my card. Use either number if you need me.”

“Thanks,” Mack said, and quickly entered the information in his phone. He slipped a card out of his pocket and handed it to Trey. “This has my cell number in case you need to reach me.”

They looked up just as the coroner exited the building, followed by two men carrying a body bag. Once they put it into the van they slammed the doors and drove away.

Mack’s voice was shaking. “I guess I need to lock up.”

“Do you have keys?” Trey asked.

Mack nodded. “I assume you want everything left as is?”

“Yes, at least until after I get the lift inspected,” Trey said.

“I’ll text you the info after I get home.”

“I’ll seal the entrances after you lock up,” Trey said. “Tell your dad’s employees to stay off the premises until I give the all clear.”

Mack got out with his keys in hand, went straight to the front door and locked up, then circled the building, making sure the back entrances were locked, as well. When he returned to the front of the station, seeing the yellow crime-scene tape across the doorway seemed surreal. He felt the stares from the crowd across the street but never looked up as he got in his car and drove away.

* * *

Marcus Silver was pale and shaken as he came to the breakfast table. He dropped into his chair, and then waved away the maid and the plate of food she was carrying.