Ashes to ashes, p.10
Ashes to Ashes, page 10
“Word’s gotten out about us spending time together outside of work and she’s jealous,” Max said.
“Tough shit for her. She has no right to be jealous when she abused your trust and cheated in the first place. And if she says something nasty about Emery or Darra again, I might just shoot her instead of punching her.”
“And I wouldn’t blame you, but arresting you for murder would suck,” Max replied with a chuckle. “Seriously, just punch her in the face again if she mouths off. No one will say anything because she’s asking for it.”
“How did you hear?”
“Mrs. Kingsbury was at a table with a couple of her friends and mentioned it when I saw her at the restaurant tonight. She told me that it was about time I found a woman worthy of my interest and not that horrible Sue Ann person,” Max said.
“She was probably one of the three older ladies that applauded when Sue Ann went racing out of the shop, all embarrassed. I like her already,” Evan replied as they sat down to eat.
“I’m planning on heading down to Florida to spend three days with my folks for Christmas, but I won’t be leaving until Sunday. The Winter Formal is Saturday night, right?”
“Yes, and I’ll be taking the girls to the salon for manicures and hair, then back here so Alanna and the twins can do their makeup together. Things keep changing with what’s happening when, and I guess Alanna and her date will be going from here in the limo with the girls and their dates, so Maggie will be here with me to get photos and hang out afterwards.”
“That sounds like fun. Enjoy yourself, huh?”
“I’m going to try. I’ve been having nightmares about something happening while they’re at the dance and I’ve got to stop hovering before they both lock me in my room so they can breathe. The fact that Esha was taken, and she’s their age? That has had me stressing in ways I know aren’t healthy.”
“You’ve never had a civilian’s life in your care when a case touched this close to home. It’s not an easy adjustment. When that guy, Brad Paskey, was killing young blond women, I worried about Sue Ann to the point where I sent her to stay with a girlfriend in Maine for a week because I needed to focus on the case and she wasn’t bright enough to explain how and why she needed to take precautions.”
“Yeah, but the twins are bright – they’re also teenagers so they don’t always think everything through. I guess it’s good that they don’t believe they’re invincible – but underdeveloped brains are no match for a serial killer.”
“I’ll have extra patrols around the community center for the dance that night. We’re going to make sure our kids are safe,” Max said.
“That’s good to hear. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to them. I don’t think I could handle losing them, too.”
“I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t have to worry about that,” Max said. “I’m going to help you find this asshole and put him in a cage for the rest of his life.”
Evan lifted her glass of water and held it up for a toast. “Here’s to caging assholes.”
Max tapped her glass with his. “Here, here.”
Chapter fourteen
Evan found herself enjoying the time spent getting the girls ready for the dance. Their excitement was contagious and it was fun to see them looking so grown up and polished. Maggie managed to keep them in check and on task, something Evan would have failed at doing. They took photos of everyone with everyone, then more after the limo showed up with the rest of the party. When they finally left for dinner, Maggie and Evan dropped into chairs in the living room and sipped the wine Evan had poured.
“You’re masterful at keeping them organized. Thank you,” Evan said.
“That’s just experience from working at the high school,” Maggie replied. “They’re all good kids, so it makes it easier.”
“I’m glad Alanna decided to go as a friend with Poe and enjoy the evening after all.”
“Yeah, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go,” Maggie said. “But Shelby sent Alanna a corsage and told her Esha would want her to go and have fun.”
“Oh, that was a sweet gesture,” Evan said.
“Made all the difference for Alanna,” Maggie said, then drained her glass. “I need more. Greg is going to swing by and pick me up after his game, so I don’t have to worry about driving.”
Evan went and got the bottle and the bag of chocolate truffles she’d tucked away and returned to the living room. “Wine and chocolate. Max is going to be at the community center for the dance, so I can have a couple of glasses and relax, too.”
“How are things going with you two?” Maggie asked.
“Good, I guess? I mean it’s been a challenge to shift what I used to know out of the way to get to know who he is now, but he’s so much more now.”
“Have you two made plans for the future?” Maggie asked.
“Not really. Not beyond trying to solve this case and being understanding with each other. We know there’s baggage we have to get past. I apologized for ghosting him and he’s been so forgiving. I doubt he’d be as forgiving if he…” Evan paused and shoved a whole chocolate into her mouth.
“If he…what?”
“Eh, if he knew everything I’d done since then. Some things are better left in the past, right?”
Maggie leaned forward, elbows on her knees and wine glass cradled in her cupped hands. “Not if what happened in the past can impact what’s happening now. You need to make sure you come clean about whatever it is that had you running.”
“I did,” Evan said as she unwrapped another chocolate. “I told him that Emery’s needing me to help her and my panic when he started talking about weddings was why I disappeared last time. It was my immaturity.”
“You were never immature, Evan,” Maggie said, gaze locked on her face. “I’ll figure it out eventually. Now, pass the chocolate.”
“Figure out what? I was twenty-three, about to start at Quantico, and I didn’t want to give up my career for a man,” Evan said as she passed the chocolates to Maggie.
“So instead, you disappear to a cottage on the coast of Maine with your pregnant sister and her wife? How does that work with your career?”
“That’s different,” Evan said as she tucked her feet up on the sofa. “Emery and I were the last of the Wylder clan. She asked, I came. Darra had to work to support them and keep their health insurance and Emery was on complete bed rest. Now that they’re gone, I’m glad I had that time with them. It helps when I tell the girls they were loved and wanted – because I saw what they went through to get them.”
“What do you say when they ask about their father?”
“Nothing. He was someone who made an anonymous donation.”
“That’ll make things interesting,” Maggie muttered under her breath.
“What?” Evan asked.
“Just thinking out loud. So, are we ordering pizza or Chinese food?”
Max was in a suit for the evening, his coms unit tucked into his ear as he watched the crowded dance floor. The twins and their friends had a whole table to themselves and seemed to be having a good time. They spent more time on the dance floor than they did sitting down and no one was being stupid with booze or drugs. The two young men that had come to the party with that kind of distribution in mind were already at the station. Patrol had picked up a couple of creepers around the event, but that was normal and handled easily. So far it didn’t appear that the Huntsman was anywhere near the event and Max honestly didn’t think the guy was even in their state any longer.
“Come dance with us, Max,” Harper asked as she swayed to the music in front of him.
“I can’t, kiddo. I’m working. You all look amazing and like you’re having a good time.”
“We are. Okay, if you get a chance before it’s all over, we’d love to have you dance one with us.”
“I might get a chance near the end. If I do, I’ll come find you,” Max assured her as she skipped back to the group on the dance floor.
“There’s a fight by the back door. Need some help.” Max heard the call through his earpiece and turned to see if the other guy near the front was in place. He wasn’t.
Max tapped his mic and spoke. “You get that backup? Because Tony isn’t at his position and I don’t want to leave the door unguarded.” No answer came back. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he moved toward one of the teacher chaperones. “Hey, I need you to stand at the front door and not let anyone in for a few minutes. Can you do that?”
The man gave Max a nod and moved to stand by the doors while Max turned and raced along the side of the dance floor to get to the back door. He found one of the officers holding a towel to his head while the other had put one of the two kids into the back of his car.
“Did you two forget how to use your coms?” Max snarled at them. “Call in backup and get a bus here to check out that injury.”
“My com got busted when the bottle hit my head,” Officer Essex said as he looked at the blood on the towel. “Sorry, sir.”
“Get your shit straightened out, both of you. I’ve got to get back inside. I’ve got a teacher standing by the doors,” Max said. He checked to make sure they’d called for help before he went back towards the front doors. When he got there, the teacher he’d asked to stand watch, was gone.
“Figures,” Max muttered as he opened the doors to check outside and watched the ambulance roll around the side of the building to pick up the injured officer. Two cars pulled out onto the road and drove away, and Max made a mental note of each. It was a cop thing, being aware at all times of one’s surroundings. He glanced at his watch and let out a breath. Two more hours and it’d be over.
“Mr. Prescott?” It was Poe, dressed in a black silk suit with their hair spiked up. “Have you seen Alicia, Hayden’s date? We’re all looking for her and we can’t find her.”
“She was the one in the black and purple gown, right?” Max asked.
“Yeah, that’s her. I want to check and see if maybe she went to lie down in the limo. She wasn’t feeling well, but didn’t want to ruin everyone’s fun,” Poe said.
“How about you stay here and I’ll go look. The limos are parked along the side of the lot. What was your driver’s name?”
“The driver’s name is Andy Thompson and here’s the plate number,” Poe said as they handed him a slip of paper. “I wrote it down to make sure we got back into the right car.”
“Smart. Okay, you stay here and I’ll go check. Don’t go anywhere – I don’t need to be looking for you, too.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll stay right here,” Poe said.
It didn’t take him long to find Alicia curled up in the back of the limo with a bottle of ginger ale, the driver playing soft music to help her rest.
“Sorry to disturb you,” Max said to the driver, “But her friends were worried. They didn’t know where she’d gone.”
“She came out here about twenty minutes ago, looking really pale and sick. I got her a barf bag and some ginger ale and she took a few sips and fell asleep in back. I was going to take her to the hospital, but she said it’s just really bad cramps and she just needed to rest,” Andy replied.
“Thanks for keeping an eye on her. I won’t disturb her rest. Just don’t let her get out on her own. If she needs to come inside, walk her up to the door, okay?”
“Yeah, sure. No problem,” Andy said. “She’s in good hands here.”
Max let out a breath of relief and walked back to the doors. “She’s in the limo, asleep. Bad cramps. The driver is going to keep an eye on her and walk her back up here if she needs to come inside.”
“Oh, thank gods,” Poe whispered. “I’ll go tell the others. Thanks for checking, Mr. Prescott.”
“You’re welcome, Poe.”
It took another few minutes for Max to get the images of a girl in a bed of flowers out of his head. He thought for sure the Huntsman had returned and taken another one. Until they caught this bastard, Max wouldn’t be able to breathe easy and he knew it.
Chapter fifteen
The holidays had come and gone and they still had nothing new on the serial case. It was mid-January and the FBI hadn’t caught wind of any new murders that matched the signatures of the Huntsman killer, so the file went into the ‘watch and wait’ pile and they worked on other cases. Quantico started to release the bodies and those from Rock Beach were buried in the local cemetery over the space of a week, while the three from around Haven were buried quietly just after the new year.
Evan and Max were seeing each other nearly every day and he stayed over when the girls were at Maggie’s, or they had a long lunch at his place before the girls got home from school.
They were at Evan’s place, at the kitchen table, where Max was asking for some feedback on a case from his girlfriend, not the official FBI input. A pot roast was in the slow cooker and the plan was for Max to stay for dinner since he’d put the pot roast meal together.
The twins came home and dropped their bags and outerwear by the door before they came into the kitchen to get drinks and snacks for homework time.
“That smells great. I’m glad I don’t have to cook tonight, I’ve got a paper to work on,” Harper said.
“Oh, good. You’re here,” Hayden said to Max.
“You can’t ask him with no warning, just blurting it out like that,” Harper said.
“Yes, I can. Watch me,” Hayden replied to her sister, then turned to Max. “Did you ever do sperm donations when you were in college?”
Max blinked at Hayden, looked at Evan, then back to Hayden. “What in the world made you ask that question?”
“We did DNA testing in AP Biology with one of those genealogy sites. I guess you’d done it once before, because it came back that you were either my father or my uncle,” Hayden said.
“And the moms told us that Mum Emery got inseminated with donor sperm,” Harper added.
Evan’s face went so pale she looked gray. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?” Harper asked.
“I did do a test for Mom so she could have more data for doing genealogy research. It’s a hobby of hers,” Max said before he turned to look at Evan. “Girls, can we talk about this in a little bit? I think your Auntie and I need to talk.”
The tension in the room was tangible, so the girls picked up their drinks and snacks and left them alone.
Max was a good detective. A very good detective. He saw Evan’s reaction and the horror on her face, and it all suddenly made sense.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Max asked.
“I never wanted to be a mother. I never wanted to have children. I went to Emery because I was scared down to my bones. It was already too late to have an abortion, and she and Darra had been trying to get pregnant with Emery and donor sperm – and she’d just miscarried their second attempt. The doctors told Emery she couldn’t carry safely and that she should have a hysterectomy to avoid continued complications with fibroid tumors and ovary issues. She and Darra said they’d cover everything and take care of me if I would give them the baby. I agreed.”
Evan took a sip of her coffee and stared into the cup as she spoke. “We found out it was twins a month after we moved to the house in Maine, and I was put on bedrest two weeks later. I was so sick, I had a nurse coming in daily to give me IVs, and I almost died when they did a c-section to deliver the babies. The twins were in the NICU for a month and it took me almost three months to heal enough to get back into training. I stayed in Maine for another six months until the lease ran out while Emery and Darra brought the girls back to Haven and bought this place. I trained and got myself back in shape, then got the all clear to step into the next class at Quantico. I never looked back.”
“Did you ever think about telling me about them? About what I might feel about being a father?” Max asked.
“Yeah, I did think about it. A lot. But I didn’t want to be a mother. I’d suck as a mother and I know it. I’m selfish, and my career and job have always come first.”
“Not when Emery and Darra died and the girls needed you. Job didn’t come first then.”
“It sort of did. I was going to pay Maggie to have the girls live with her and Greg if I couldn’t figure out a way to make the job work. Rachel managed to find a way to keep me employed and on my career track – and allow me to come back and take care of the twins. And yes, I know how horrible that sounds. I would’ve come here eventually anyway – I’m not that big of an asshole. But my first thought wasn’t about the twins, it was about my job. I’ve lived my whole life knowing that how well I did my job was how I measured my success in life. I don’t count on people being there for me because when I care about people, they die. They always die.”
The quiet stretched between them. Max felt like he was on a roller coaster. He had gone from confusion to rage, to quiet anger, to empathy and understanding since the girls had come home and dropped that bombshell.
“You need to tell them,” Max said. “We need to tell them.”
“You already sort of did. Well, your DNA test did,” Evan said.
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to bring it up since the second month I lived here. I never thought I’d end up back in Haven, or back in your life, so I didn’t ever consider what it would mean to have to tell you. The deal was that the girls were Darra and Em’s kids, and for me? That was that. I never considered them mine in any way, shape, or form. Then I was here, and Emery was gone – and you were back in my bed and it all got too big.”
“I can understand that,” Max said with a sigh. “It feels too big now and I’ve only known for a half hour or so.” He looked up at Evan and reached out to take one of her hands. “I’m sorry you went through all of that without me, but I understand why. I probably would’ve demanded we get married and raise them ourselves because that was the supposedly right thing to do. What you did? That was generous and terrifying.”
