Dead on arrival, p.9
Dead On Arrival, page 9
The big question had been raised, one that Harper had been sitting on since he had revealed his true self. Did he kill people? The short answer was no, which was a massive relief. He did feed on humans, but he only took what he needed to survive and though the thought of teeth in her neck wasn’t the most pleasant, it was still better than the images of gore and torture she had been imagining. Perhaps she’d just watched too many terrible horror movies.
“So do you have any family other than your brother?” Harper asked as she sprawled out on the couch in Richard’s office.
“No,” the sharpness of the answer let her know that it was a sore subject. That was cool, she knew the feeling and didn’t push him any further. “What about you?”
“Just my brother.”
“Yet another thing we have in common,” he joked lightly, trying to disperse a bit of the tension he knew he had brought to the room. It was true, from talking it did seem they did have a lot in common, even a love of absolutely awful B movies. It was almost like they were made to be around one another. Even from these brief conversations and questionings, there were so many interests and hobbies they shared, that it was getting harder and harder to drop it down to coincidence.
“Yeah, but it sounds like you’re a lot closer with your brother than I am with mine,” she sighed, “I’m always too busy working to get to spend time with him. At best we get a monthly video call when I eventually have a day off.”
“That’s awful. Why do you work so much anyway?”
“It’s not exactly the most sought after job, but it’s an important one and someone needs to do it. I want to be there for my patients, to make them comfortable even after their soul has long passed and give comfort to the families that they were treated with the utmost respect.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“Not many do. Even after they have passed, these are still people. People who were loved and cared about. People who have people waiting out there, people who need to say their last goodbyes to get closure. Richard is good at his job, but sometimes he’s just so clinical about it. I couldn’t imagine just being treated like -” Harper’s voice broke as she felt herself getting choked up. Images of the past flashed through her mind. That receptionist just giving her an unfeeling shrug as tears burned in her eyes.
‘Where is my mother!’ The scream echoed through her mind, her throat burning as if it had just left her lips.
“Harper,” Kaleb snapped her out of her thoughts, concern tinged his tone.
“Sorry,” she cleared her throat giving a half-hearted chuckle at herself, “I’m just a little too passionate I suppose.”
“I’ll say,” he agreed, but gave her a comforting smile. Despite only having known him for a short period she trusted him. Maybe not enough to spill her entire gory past on him. No one wanted that. But enough that speaking to him was easy, even for someone as socially awkward as Harper. It was nice, strangely enough. Harper didn’t get much social interaction, other than Richard’s yellings and an occasional five minute chat with Frankie.
“Tell me about your brother,” Kaleb changed the subject, “I heard you on the phone with him, you sound close.”
He heard that? From inside a locker? Wow, another note to self. Vampires had super good hearing, don’t spill any secrets within a five-mile radius.
“There’s not much to tell,” Harper chuckled as fond memories flooded into her mind, “Jordan is a firefighter, risking his life on the daily to save others. People call him a hero but to me, he’s just your typical jerk big brother. We’ve grown a lot closer since we lost our mother, but he’s still my big brother and will act as such.”
“Sorry about your mother,” Kaleb hadn’t missed the break in her voice as she’d said it. Is there anything that could slip past this guy? Even one thing?
“What about your brother?” she quickly diverted the conversation away from anything painful.
Kaleb sat back and thought for a moment, pondering the correct words to use.
“Asher was a jerk of a big brother too when we lived together. He was disowned and exiled from my family because of his defiance, they didn’t want the bad reputation he was bringing to them. I lost contact with him for a good few years until - we lost our mother also,” there was a pause and she saw the pain flicker in his eyes, he took a breath before continuing. “We reconnected but only long-distance and very occasional, that is until my life came under threat. You could say the big brother side of him came out then,” he tried to end it with a light-hearted chuckle but the conversation was far too heavy to be saved by that.
Without thinking Harper reached out her hand and grasped his, shocking both of them. His skin was cool and smooth beneath hers as she gently rubbed her thumb across the back of his hand. He just stared at their interlocked hands, completely astounded and lost for words. To be honest, it was a bit of a shock to her too. It was almost as if sparks were flying between where their skin met. It was truly a strange feeling and she felt Kaleb suck in a sharp breath.
“I’m sorry about your mother,” she said solemnly. The pain she had seen flicker in his eyes returned but this time coupled with gratitude. Neither of them mentioned the weird tingling in their hands. Harper couldn’t even be sure that he felt it too. Instead, she squeezed his hand as a sign of solidarity. She knew how this felt, that pain she saw was almost a reflection of her own, “And I hope Asher makes it here in time.” It was all sincere, she did hope everything worked out for him. Vampire or not she still saw a person sitting before her. A heartbroken person who just needed that extra support.
“Thank you, Harper,” he nodded, “It does mean a lot.”
It was almost surreal as she locked gazes with his bright blue eyes. There was a depth to them that she hadn’t seen before. There was so much emotion there and as before it was almost a mirror of her own. Then there was something else. A longing. What for she wasn’t quite sure, but it was strong. His gaze flickered down to her lips before meeting her gaze once more.
Oh.
Their heartfelt moment was cut short as Harper heard the elevator roar to life at the end of the hallway. Kaleb heard it too… well he probably heard it first as he was already out of his seat, their hands breaking their connection. Harper immediately felt deflated as soon as his hand left hers. What was that about?
“Sounds like your boss is back,” he cleared his throat.
Harper glanced at the clock only to see that it was already 7:30 am. Wow, the night had flown by.
“I better get back to my locker,” but he seemed reluctant, his gaze lingering over her, making her feel warm and fuzzy inside. What the hell was this? She hadn’t experienced anything like this since… well, like, ever.
“I’ll keep you safe,” she promised, offering him a smile. He smiled back and Harper felt herself melting on the inside. God, had he always been this good looking or was she just noticing it now? No, this was not the time to think of that.
Then came the screech as the elevator slowed ready to stop at their floor.
“I need to go,” he told her, “I’ll speak to you soon.”
Harper just nodded and then in a blur of movement he was gone. She would never get used to that. He was so fast.
“Harper?” she heard Richard’s voice call from down the hall.
Her morning was officially about to begin and she was already exhausted.
Chapter 18
“How are you feeling this morning?” Richard asked as he took his seat at his desk, bothered but not complaining about her still being sprawled across his office couch, “Did you manage to get some sleep?”
“I did,” she confirmed, pulling herself up into a sitting position, “There were no admittances, so it was pretty dead - excuse the pun.”
“Well that’s good I suppose,” his fingers began to clack across his keyboard as he pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose.
“I have rearranged the whiteboard,” she carried on, “You will need to call those detectives back today, but I can’t fit in John Doe’s autopsy until the end of next week.”
Richard paused, “That seems an excessive amount of time. Isn’t there anyone we could budge up to make time?”
‘This is not the time to start deciding to do your own schedule, Richard,’ Harper thought agitatedly. She had already known it was going to be hard to justify but she needed to try at least get Richard on side to buy them the time they needed.
Harper shook her head, “In order of collections you have at least one a day leading up to his, with a day’s rest when you need to make some calls to some of the funeral directors.”
Not very convincing, she already knew before Richard pinned her with a suspicious look.
“You know very well I can do more than one a day.”
“I know, but I know you have a lot of important paperwork to fill in afterwards and I didn’t want to compromise that by exhausting you.”
Come on now, Harper. She sounded fake even to herself. Richard wasn’t buying a bit of it.
He took his glasses off and placed them on his desk, before turning his office chair so he was facing her head-on, “What’s really going on?”
Crap. What now? Harper took a deep breath as if to say ‘you caught me’ but it was really a way to buy a little extra time as her brain scrambled for another possible reason. She could not tell Richard the truth, that was for sure.
“Look, I still don’t trust those detectives and I may have gotten a bit of inside information that his family will be coming for him, and I don’t want anything to be done to the body before it has been signed off by them.”
That was a little more convincing but left her open for the…
“And how do you know this information?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You know this is serious, Harper,” Richard rubbed his thumb and forefinger across the bridge of his nose, “He’s a John Doe. How do you know the family is actually coming when we don’t even know who he is? And if it is true and you do know, then you’ve been holding back on crucial information.”
“I know how it sounds,” she nodded, “But I need you to trust me, Richard.”
“Harper -”
“I have never, in all my time working here, been dishonest with you,” she cut him off, knowing he was going to try to push this the other way, but she needed him to listen, “I know its a big ask, but I need you to trust me that something is wrong here and I am doing my best to keep everything right. You know why I love my job. I help those who have already passed on and I help families find peace of mind. Right now, I just know there is something wrong with those detectives.”
“And what about me? I could lose my job for -”
“That’s the thing, you aren’t telling them no, Richard,” she cut him off again, already ready to fight this battle too, “All you need to tell them is that you can’t fit him in until next week. I have paperwork and everything to prove it all. All I need is some time to figure this out, please, Richard.”
Okay, it was more of a plea at the end but otherwise, she came away from it with her dignity intact. Richard sat and stared at her for the longest time. His eyes scoured her face as he pondered on her request. Finally, he let out a huge sigh and turned back to his computer, sliding his glasses back onto his face.
“If this goes wrong, Harper, I will throw you under the bus without a moment’s hesitation.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t expect any less,” she sounded almost excited and had to quickly tone herself down so as not to come off as weird. The last thing she needed was for Richard to be more suspicious of her.
“Fine, give me the number and get out.”
Harper could have squealed. Richard actually listened to her. He was actually going to help her. He really had no idea how much this meant to her and probably never would, but she would make sure that she made it up to him one day. She ran and grabbed the now dog-eared scrap of paper for him before leaving him alone to make, what would surely be, an interesting call.
Once back at her desk Harper glanced over to the whiteboard, double-checking that she’d scribbled them all down in the correct order. John Doe sat at the bottom. His autopsy was scheduled for four days from now. It wasn’t long but it was the best that she could give him. She just hoped that Asher would make an appearance before then.
“Thanks for helping me with this, Frankie,” she sighed as she forced the scraper across her windscreen. Her car had been sitting alone outside so long and of all things, under a leaking pipe, that it had completely frozen over. She hadn’t really expected to be going home too early in the day, but Francesca from HR had come click-clacking down in her too-good-for-you heels and ordered her to leave the premises. It also sounded like Richard was about to get an earful for letting her work such long hours. It also appeared that he was willing to let her work all of that day too, which she wouldn’t have grumbled at but apparently that was ‘against the law’ and kept preaching something about a ‘working time directive.’ Either way, it had ended in her being told to leave and not return for at least forty-eight hours.
“No problem,” Frankie chuckled as he emptied another can of de-icer onto the rock-solid ice, “Someone really needs to fix that pipe,” he grumbled as he tried his best to chip away at it yet again. The two of them continued to work in a comfortable, if not a little chilly, silence. Eventually, the ice began to crack and bits began to give way.
“Hooray. Finally,” Frankie exclaimed as he jammed the scraper into one of the cracks and with one big heave, he flipped the now loose ice sheet onto the floor where it landed with a thick thud.
“It didn’t even smash,” Harper’s eyes widened with amazement as the big ice block just lay there on the floor.
“It’s too damn thick to smash,” Frankie gave it a kick to demonstrate but ended up hurting his toes, “I’ll get maintenance on that today if I can.”
“Probably for the best,” she agreed before ducking inside the car, “Moment of truth.”
With bated breath, she jammed the key in the ignition and turned it. There was a tense few moments as the engine sputtered before finally turning over. Both she and Frankie gave a huge sigh of relief.
“You drive safe, Harper,” he called giving her a friendly wave, “Enjoy your time off.”
“You know me, I don’t do well with time off,” she joked. Well, half-joked.
“At least try,” he chuckled back.
“I will.” With that, she put the car in reverse and started to pull out of the lot.
Chapter 19
Getting home was… interesting, to say the least. As expected there were still queues on the roads because of the bad conditions, but the main routes had been cleared thankfully, making it less treacherous. The road to her house was a totally different story. It had taken her fifteen minutes to travel the two-hundred feet from the bottom of the road up to her house because of how icy it was. It had been a relief as she’d managed to swing it around into the driveway.
Now she was inside and already bored as hell. What the hell was she going to do stuck at home for the next two days? She was Harper StClair, self-proclaimed Paranormal PI. She should be at work helping Kaleb and making sure that Richard was sticking to his word. The first thing she decided on was a scorching hot shower to wash away all the grime of being at work for over twenty-four hours. Harper let her head fall back as the burning water powered through the embedded grunge.
By the time she got out she was burning almost as bright as the sun, but she was clean and she felt like a new woman. Wrapping her hair up in a towel she grabbed her robe before heading back downstairs, and to the kitchen to fix herself a snack. It wasn’t until she actually opened the fridge that her stomach roared at her. She was starving. She’d forgotten to eat, yet again. Problem was, she still hadn’t been to the supermarket. The fridge still lay bare with its few residents harbouring their own ecosystem. Gross.
The first domestic job was confirmed. Order some groceries, because she sure as hell wasn’t braving those roads again. She whipped out her phone and began to make her order while she shuffled her fluffy slippers back into the living room. A few taps and a rather large bill later she was done. The delivery wasn’t going to arrive for another few hours so she had some time to kill. She needed to do something to distract her from her grumbling stomach.
A movie? Nah, nothing interested her. Daytime TV? Too boring. Read a book? Nothing new to read.
Harper let out a frustrated breath as she looked around her living room for inspiration. That’s when her gaze landed on the long-forgotten games console Jordan had bought her three Christmases ago. She must have only played it a handful of times, and while she did enjoy it she just never got the time or never had the energy.
Well, now was as good of a time as any to rekindle her love for it. After blowing away the thick layer of dust that had gathered on it, she placed it up on the coffee table and plugged everything in. Amazingly it still fired up, the fans whirring to life as soon as she touched the button. Okay, it worked, that was a good start. But now the real question was, what did she play?
She glanced at the stack of games that had been carelessly strewn in the drawer. Jordan had bought her a selection to go with the console, and she purchased a couple herself that had taken her fancy but hardly any of them had been opened, let alone played with. She laid them out on the coffee table as she pondered over them. By far one of them stood out the most. A fantasy RPG. The cover held a witch mid-spell, and a wolf howling at the moon, but most noticeable of all, at least to Harper, was the fierce-looking vampire flanking them. Bound in Blood was the title, and it held the tagline, ‘Pick your side and join the fight.’ This was one of the games that Jordan had picked for her, not that she’d ever shown interest in any sort of RPGs before. She was a first-person shooter type of gamer, always had been. But it could be fun. It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t curious just because of vampire involvement in the game but she was willing to give the game a go.
