Page 30 of Love's Hot

“Little Red, Little Red, come out, come out wherever you are,” I call as I walk back towards my room.

I see her blonde head peek out from behind the bathroom door. “Is he gone? Did he suspect anything?” The concern in her eyes makes me want to grab her and kiss that worry right out of her.

“Don’t worry, Little Red, the big bad wolf scared him off.” She opens the door fully and prances out with a towel wrapped tightly around her chest. Still in those damn shoes.

“Whatever, you idiot. Just tell me, did Xavier know it was me in here?” I can tell she isn’t up for a joke right now.

“It’s okay, Lil, he guessed I had company but has no idea it’s you. He just wanted to check on me. Your adorable sister was worried about me yesterday. Must be something about you Stevenson women that you can read me well.”

“Alesha better not be reading you as well as I am, or there’ll be trouble for both of you.” Her hands are on her hips with mock anger. “I don’t share my men, you know.”

“Funny, I just told Xavier the same thing.” I walk closer to wrap her in my arms. “For now, you’re mine, and while that’s the case, I won’t share you with anyone. Understood, Red?” She slowly nods her head and then looks up at me with those beautiful big eyes. I can’t resist leaning down and kissing her. This arrangement I’m starting to see could be very dangerous for us both. I know I should get her home, but I just need one more time to keep me going until we meet up again. Whenever that may be.

***

This run up into the mountain trails with Xavier is just what I need. It’s different than running the streets where you pound the flat pavement, and the repetitive sounds of your feet hitting the ground soothes the soul. Up here on the trails, your mind needs to be sharp as you’re running on uneven surfaces and winding along the trails which are covered in foliage. Between the fresh air and the concentration and exertion your mind is totally consumed. It clears the head.

We reach the clearing on top of the mountain which looks out over the valley. It still makes my skin crawl a little each time we’re up here now. Xavier copes better with it than I do. He reminds me every time that this is a happy place for him where the love of his life accepted his hand in marriage. When I first met Xavier, I never would have imagined him married or such a softie when it comes to Alesha. It’s like she casts a spell over him every time she’s in the room.

We stand and catch our breath while just looking out to the spectacular view. I contemplate what my life would be like if I took the path of marriage like Xavier. Could I cope with coming home to a woman who would want to hear all about my day while I help care for the children? I can see the vision of the woman in the kitchen, apron around her waist, taking dinner out of the oven as I enter the house. Just picture the serenity.

“You should have seen the way the skull was cracked open and you could see the brains. Hang on, Johnny, just let Daddy finish telling Mommy about my day and then I’ll read you a bedtime story. Come and sit on my lap and listen to my story and then we can take you upstairs to your room.

“So, then my partner looked in the dumpster and there was another body as well. It looked like it had been stabbed multiple times, with both his hands chopped off. Besides that, I had a good day. Thanks for asking.” I stand up lifting my son with me and kissing my wife on the cheek. “Okay I’ll just take Johnny into bed now and get him settled. Then I’ll be back down to have dinner together and tell you more about the case.”

Who the hell am I kidding? That is why I made my choice. Meanwhile, I look across at Xavier who I can imagine is thinking of a totally different happily ever after than me.

“So, you sure you’re good, man? Need to chat about anything?” I take a moment to decide if I should take him up on his offer or just let it slide and suck it up. Lilly sure did help to work my bad mood out of me with her visit. Not that I can tell him that. I must admit, there’s still a heaviness weighing down on my brain that I need to shift.

“I’m feeling better today, but it’s this case that I just can’t seem to see what I’m missing. It’s really shaking me up. I don’t know why this case more than any other. I just have this weird feeling with this one. There’s something bigger going on and I don’t know what it is.” I pause to take a breath and Xavier motions for me to sit on the seat near the lookout. We both take a load off and I start to pour out what I’ve been bottling up. Lilly might have fucked the bad mood out of me, but Xavier is my sounding board. He always helps my head to sort through my thought process.

“What’s the case?” he asks, genuinely interested.

“I have a missing woman. She goes to meet a date she met through an online dating app, for the first time and goes missing. Co-workers report her missing when she doesn’t show up on the next workday for a meeting. Didn’t tell anyone where she was going or who she was meeting. Just one girl at work she mentioned on her way out the night before she was going on an online date – or online hook-up, she actually called it.” I run my hand through my hair, which is my telltale sign of stress.

“Sounds like a recipe for disaster written all over it from the start.” Even Xavier understands.

“Yeah, if she had just given some sort of clue to one of her friends then it might have given us something to go on. Of course, his dating app profile is a fake one and hopefully the weekend shift will get access to her messages today that might help to know where the meet-up spot was. It’s like she just vanished into thin air. Doesn’t match any of the bodies found this week or victims admitted to any hospitals in the area. Unfortunately, at this stage we’re usually looking for a body but there’s something in my gut that tells me she’s still alive. I think that’s why it’s messing with my head. It’s like she’s calling me to find her and save her. I know that sounds like I’m crazy, but I can’t help it.”

My heart is starting to beat a little harder and faster than it does when I’m running.

“Kane, you’re an excellent cop who works damn hard to solve these crimes. You have a talent for this sort of thing and if that comes from a sixth sense you have, then the force is lucky to have you. I say you stick with that weird feeling you have. If she’s calling to you then you need to keep trying to find her. I remember when I was in trouble, I was calling to you and Alesha in my head to come and find me. Praying you would hear me. Don’t discount the psychic world just because we don’t understand it.”

We sit in silence for a little while just thinking and trying to breathe in the clean air.

“The last contact we have is her phone pinging off the Steel Street phone tower at ten fifty-seven pm. Prior to that we can see she sent a couple of messages around nine thirty pm to a phone which turns out to be a burner phone. We aren’t sure if it was her sending them, or the guy using her phone. Either way, that part of town isn’t anything major. There are a few nightclubs in the area, restaurants, unit complexes and warehouses towards the water that fit in the geographical range. Actually, it’s down near the Stevensons’ waterfront development. So not a high-class area but not too bad either now that it’s being redeveloped.”

“I’ll talk to the boys and get them to ask around the workers if they’ve seen anything odd on the site or heard of anything weird,” Xavier offers thinking he’s helping.

“No, it’s okay, man, I’ll talk to the boys. I don’t want them talking to anyone. We’ll need to do that in case there is something, we don’t want to scare them off or screw up any evidence that’ll get a case thrown out of court. Thanks for the offer. Remember you don’t actually know any of this so can’t have you running off playing Sherlock Holmes for me.” We both laugh at the vision of him in the little hat and the pipe out of his mouth. Of all people, the healthy gym freak would be the last one to be smoking a pipe.

“Have you thought of mirroring her online profile and starting to chat to the fake profile to see if you can get him to take the bait?”

“Once we get these messages over the weekend, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing. If we’re lucky, then he’ll take the bait. In another way, it would also be unlucky because does that means he’s a serial guy who gets women on a date and then hurts them? Urgh. This shit sucks. I hate feeling left in the dark with little clues. The sad part is there are other missing women over the last few years that haven’t been solved either. Some we have even less information than this one. It’s so sad that there are so many people out there that actually don’t have many friends they communicate with. They live relatively solitary lives but use the internet to make connections. The scary part is those ‘friends’ are not always good people. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great friendships formed online. This is a small percentage of the overall social media. It’s just the bad part of the internet is what comes across my desk regularly.”

“Sounds like this one is going to become personal for you. Don’t let it drag you under. Remember what your boss tells you: ‘you can’t save them all. All you can do is try.’ I’m always here if you need to unload the shit in your head. You know that. A gym session or a beer session, whichever takes your fancy, at the time.” Xavier leans over and places his hand on my shoulder which is like hugging it out if we were two girls.

“Now enough of this dark shit. Tell me the good stuff, like how was your little sex romp today? Surprised you still had the energy to run after that.”

---