Missing: The Body of Evidence (11 page)

Nancy hoped to put a positive spin on
the rest of her day, to prepare for her weekend away with Kyle. All thoughts of
hospitals were put on hold, after she decided a little shopping therapy was in
order during her lunch break. There wasn’t time to go mall shopping so she
headed for Bittersweet Butterfly, on Micheltorena Street, to find some sexy
lingerie to wear. She tried to convince herself it was to make her feel good,
which it would, but she knew deep down it was a surprise for Kyle, after the
way she had treated him.

The shop didn’t feel sleazy in the way some
lingerie outlets did. They sold everything from potted plants, to local
handmade jewellery and she loved the pink facade in the style of an age gone by
that mall stores didn’t seem to be able to capture. Nancy parked outside,
climbed out of her car and entered the shop. She bought all her scented candles
from here, and the occasional lotions. It seemed to be a favourite stop for
boyfriends and husbands looking for something special for their women. Nancy
picked out a sexy lingerie outfit and bought it, sure in the notion it would
please Kyle. She prayed it would make up for all the crap she had given him.

The shopping diversion had worked as she
started to feel in the vacation spirit on the drive back to the office. Nancy
placed her cell phone on the passenger seat, hoping on hope that Kyle would
call, but he didn’t. Kyle’s SUV was in the parking lot and she parked in the
bay behind him. Knowing he was in the office put a spring in her step.

‘Hi, Claire.’

‘Hi, hon. How’d the appointment go?’

‘Don’t ask.’ she said and smiled. ‘I have
to go for an MRI scan Monday afternoon. Just as a precaution he said.’

‘What, for these headaches you’ve been
having lately?’

‘Yeah, probably nothing, but it scares the
crap outta me.’

‘Well, good luck, hon. We’ve just had a
visit from internal affairs. Do you know what’s going on? The office emptied
rapidly when they arrived.’

‘Not got a clue, nothing to do with me; is
Kyle in the office?’

‘Just arrived.’

Nancy pushed through the swinging doors.
Sure enough, the office was empty. Kyle’s coat was over the back of his chair,
so she guessed he was with Logan. There were raised voices at times, emanating
from behind the closed door to Logan’s office, but she could not make out what
they were shouting.

An hour passed by, before Kyle surfaced.
She was dying to ask him about Kelly, but Logan called her to his office.

Kyle looked sheepish as he passed her and
whispered.

‘Don’t tell him about our weekend away.’

His comment puzzled her. Alarm bells began
to ring about the visit from internal affairs, but she couldn’t make a
connection.

‘Sit down.’

Nancy did as ordered and looked around the
room. She could feel his eyes staring at her. It could only have been a few
seconds, but the silence seemed to go on forever. She broke the silence.

‘Well?’

She looked at him. He sat with his arms
folded in a standoffish manner.

‘The appointment?’

Relief that the appointment was all he was
asking about took her by surprise. He wasn’t one to ask about personal
problems.

‘Oh, that, fine. I have to go back for some
tests on Monday afternoon.’

‘You will be working in the morning?’

She didn’t know if it was a question or an
order.’

‘Yes.’

‘Good.’

He started to stroke his fingers at the
side of his lips, which was a new one on her. He tended to fire from the hip,
this was the first time she had seen him do pensive.

‘Relationships,’ he said, in a sort of
spluttering cough as if the words stuck in his throat. He sat back clasped his
fingers and started twiddling his thumbs. He was clearly uncomfortable and used
his elbows on the armrests to shuffle his backside on his seat.

‘And? Relationships?’ Nancy asked.

He seemed to gather a head of steam at her
prompt.

‘Relationships between colleagues and work
don’t mix. I hear you and Kyle have been dating. It can lead to all kinds of
problems.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like one partner covering up for the
other; that kind of thing. Then there’s sticking their noses into cases that
don’t concern them outside work, instead of concentrating on the work in hand.’

Anger welled up inside her at the intrusion
into her private life.

‘So, what are you saying, exactly? Do you
mean colleagues can’t go for a friendly drink or for a meal as friends?’ The
curtness and defiant way she delivered her question must have been obvious. He
rose from his chair.

‘Friends, do you know what the definition
is of a friend of the opposite sex?’

No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.

‘Well, I’ll tell you. A friend of the
opposite sex is someone who wants to, but doesn’t have you in the sack yet, but
dearly wants to step over the line. There is no such thing as a friend of the
opposite sex. I’m saying, I don’t hold with relationships between colleagues
and if it carries on between you two, one of you will be shipped out of here.
Do I make myself clear?’

What a dick head. I wonder if he thinks
I went for a pregnancy test.

He was definitely loud and clear. Nancy
could sense her instinct to defend her position building up inside like a
pressure cooker waiting to blow off steam. Where the fortitude came from to
hold her cool, she couldn’t be sure. Nevertheless, at that moment, she didn’t
think this was the right time or place to be changing the subject and to ask
about the visit of internal affairs, or about Kelly.

‘Loud and clear.’

‘Right, well, just think about that over
this weekend. I’ll see you on Monday. Make sure your cell phone is live early.
I may need to talk with you before you arrive at the office.’

He turned his back on her and started to
fumble inside one of the drawers of his filing cabinet. Nancy assumed the
interview was over, rose to her feet, did a twirl and left through his door,
slamming it behind her. Nancy marched to her desk, sat down and threw open one
of the cold case files. Logan’s door opened and he sat at one of the
detective’s workstations. Her gaze met Kyle’s eyes. They both shrugged their
shoulders and half smiled at each other. The next two hours were excruciating.
The minute hand on the office wall-clock seemed to her as if some invisible
force held it back. She had no way of knowing, but all the time it felt as if
Logan was watching her. Finally, the clock hit five and she hurried out of the
building, not even aware if their vacation was still on for the weekend. Kyle
caught up with her on the stairway.

‘Follow me. You can park up at Mom’s house,’
said Kyle. ‘We need to get to Interstate 5, North of Los Angeles, before the
traffic gets too bad. Possibly, we can make Pine Mountain in one hour, or maybe
an hour and a half if we hit traffic.’

Whatever Kyle and Logan argued about, he
wasn’t saying. She had to bite her lip not to ask about Kelly and decided to
wait for the right opportunity once they arrived at the cabin. There was no
doubt in her mind he would have had the same
relationship
treatment as
she, but for now she thought it was best left alone, as anything Logan may have
said to Kyle obviously hadn’t deterred him from wanting to spend the weekend
with her.

They soon arrived at his mom’s house. She
greeted them warmly. Nancy noticed her wink and nod at Kyle as if given the
official seal of approval. They quickly showered and changed clothes. Nancy
moved her baggage into the rear of Kyle’s SUV. All the while, his mom fussed
around him firing questions to make sure he had everything he needed packed and
ready to go.

‘I’ll leave my keys with you, in case you
need to move the car,’ Nancy said and handed his mom her keys.

They set off with a warm smile and a wave
from his mom. Nancy smiled inside. She didn’t have him marked down as a mom’s
boy. She wished the talk with Logan had not happened. Neither of them talked
about the subject. She imagined Kyle was of the same mind as she. The battle
not to ask him about Kelly was twisting her gut inside out, but mindful of
Logan’s words, she held back, hoping he would talk about it, but he didn’t say
anything. Nancy did the only thing she could do under the circumstances, she
let the seat down to recline, and drifted to sleep.

Nancy awoke, her seat belt biting into her
chest as Kyle hit the brake pedal.

‘Where are we?’

Pine Mountain area, ninety miles north
of Los Angeles.

Kyle pulled up at the booking office. The
illuminated-wildfire-warning sign at the entrance had an arrow pointing in the
yellow segment, almost bordering on the orange segment and indicating a high
alert.

‘Wait here. We’ve arrived,’ he said.

Easing out of his seat, Kyle went to
collect the cabin key. Nancy opened the car door to let in more air. The sticky
heat of the evening air was stifling. She picked up a bottle of spring water
from the holder at the side of the gearshift and took a slug. The water tasted
warm. She leaned out of the car and spat the mouthful of foul tasting water out
on the asphalt.

Hauling herself out of her seat, she
smoothed down her jeans, opened the top buttons of her blouse and walked about
aimlessly to stretch her legs. A soda machine beckoned at the entrance to the
booking office, proving too hard to resist. The coins clanked in the bowels of
the machine and she selected an orange soda. In her mind, there was something
infinitely more satisfying about pulling the ring opener, followed by the hiss,
which made drinking from a can pleasurable. Nancy rolled the chilled can on her
forehead, then on her chest, before putting it to her lips and eagerly gulping
it to quench her thirst. Nancy placed more coins in the slot and dropped a can
of coke. Kyle exited the booking office and she tossed him the coke can.

‘Thanks.’ Kyle fumbled with the can, before
bringing it under control. He pulled the ring on the can. The contents of the
can sprayed him in a fountain of soda mist. ‘What the crap?’

He stood back holding the can at arm’s
length. Nancy burst out laughing. He must have seen the funny side, because he
snickered before taking a drink.

‘Some outfielder you’d make. I wouldn’t go
setting up a trial with the Dodgers just yet.’

‘Funny, ha, ha. The only sport I like is
watching.’

‘Where’s the cabin?’

‘Surprise. It’s a little way from here.
You’ll see.’ Kyle pocketed the cabin keys. ‘Jump in the car, it’ll only take
five minutes.’

Surprise? I bet it doesn’t match the
surprise I have in mind.

Nancy was familiar with the area. She could
hardly fail to recognize the roadside sign for the picnic area where she had
bought the painting that hung on the wall in her apartment. Her backside lifted
off the seat in the opposite direction to her insides as Kyle’s SUV hit the
small hump-back bridge over a creek. Kyle spun the wheel, hit the ruts of a
track off to the right and drove uphill. With only the dust covered dimmed
beams of the SUV to guide them, Kyle changed the gearshift to off road and
slowed to a crawl.

‘I hope you know where you’re going?’

By now, she had a good idea where they were
headed, although visibility was down to four feet. She could hardly contain her
excitement. Despite the uncomfortable rocking of the SUV’s suspension on the
rough track, she had a notion this was going to be
some
romantic
gesture. Nancy wanted to pinch herself, thinking there had to be a catch. The
rocking motion smoothed out and the tyres crunched gravel. The tyres skidded on
the grit as Kyle hit the brake pedal and they stopped with a final lurch, and
shards of gravel on rubber sound.

Nancy felt like someone had given her all
her life’s birthday presents at one time.

‘It’s the cabin in my painting. Wha… hey.
Oh, Kyle, come here.’

She reached out and threw her arms around
Kyle, drew him to her and they kissed. Kyle drew back.

‘Come on, let’s unpack.’

Kyle worked his way around the back of the
SUV and opened the rear door. Nancy skipped toward the cabin door, as if she
were a child. He rushed past her and opened the door, reached inside and
switched on the light. A bow and a waving gesture from Kyle and she started to
walk inside, when, without warning, Kyle swept her off her feet and carried her
inside.

‘Your castle awaits, Madam,’ he said as he
set her down. She felt her cheeks redden with heat at the gesture, unsure how
to react, and glanced around the room.

‘I’ll get our baggage and provisions,’ he
said and disappeared outside the cabin.

Nancy felt a cold shudder, her arms dropped
lifeless to her side and her legs trembled. She stood slack mouthed. This was
more than a flash of déjà vu. Everything in the cabin was exactly as in the
vision of her dreams, down to the line of ants on the kitchen door.