Page 25 of In the Bones
Lately, Nicole’s nights were filled with hushed fantasies of another kind. They involved packing up the girls and leaving her husband. Doing, in essence, what her own mother had done, and banishing her children’s father from their lives. She’d never completely forgiven her mother for that, and maybe her girls would feel just as betrayed, but her marriage was a rowboat in a storm, her chance to reach the shore alive slipping away.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Woody said it suddenly, taking a step toward Nicole. “Does Mikko know who you are?”
After the deal was done, at the height of her anger, Nicole had demanded to meet Mikko Helle. He’d encouraged Woody to cheat; that was the only explanation. The men had been together the night it had happened, according to Stacy. Drinking and carrying on as if Woody was still in high school instead of a father with two kids, a mortgage, a business to run. Woody had forbidden Nicole from confronting his new partner.It’s done, he’d said.If you ruin this for us, we lose everything. That was the moment Nicole had decided to take matters into her own hands.
“Of course he doesn’t know,” she said, her voice like tires on gravel. Nicole had taken great pains to keep her identity hidden, never using her real surname. Never sharing anything about her personal life. “If I told him who I was, how couldI have searched his house for proof that he’s trying to rob us blind?” She sucked in a breath and braced her hands against her knees. For a second, she thought she was going to throw up.
Woody turned his back on his wife. Tipped her sandwich onto a plate, and shoved it onto the table. Under the too-bright overhead light in the kitchen, the bread looked oily and damp.
“You don’t know him,” he said, looming over her. “Mikko Helle has nothing to do with those bones. It’s all going to be fine.”
Nicole let her head roll back on her neck. She did this sometimes when she was trying not to cry, staring up at the ceiling to lock the tears in place. She hadn’t known what she was looking for when she first stepped into Mikko Helle’s house, in search of evidence that he was the devil come to ruin their lives, but what could be more incriminating than those bones? It had to be enough proof for Woody. To force him to reconsider. To make him see.
When she looked back at the place where her husband had been standing, Nicole saw only a tired, empty room.
TWENTY-TWO
Tim
Tim woke to the sound of screaming. There was a time when that would have been cause for alarm and he would have gone for his sidearm. Today he just groaned, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and rolled his body out of bed.
In the nursery, Darcy grinned crookedly in her crib, knowing full well she’d won.
This was a new game of hers, one he found entertaining and torturous at the same time. The kid had figured out a scream brought her father running, while quiet, inquisitive calls of “Dadda?” might go ignored, especially if issued before sunup. Both Tim and Shana were off-duty on Sundays and often didn’t need to work even if they were on call, but homicides turned schedules on their heads. Now, Tim checked the clock. Nearly six. Darcy was clearly done sleeping, babbling about “pack-cakes” and pawing at his stubble with her tender, chubby hands.
Tim scooped her up and took her to the master bedroom. Brought a finger to his lips—shh—and delivered a conspiratorial smile before tucking her between him and his wife. The child snuggled against them, doing her best to stay quiet in the face of this unexpected treat.
Shana’s eyes snapped open, a look of amusement playing across her face.
“Looks like we have a visitor.”
“She missed you,” said Tim. “I did too.”
“You were only gone two minutes.”
“It was two minutes too long.”
Shana’s eyes twinkled, her face pure joy. There were more lines fanning out from those eyes now than when they had firstmet, but to Tim, that only deepened her beauty. They were paths to the memories they’d shared, trails they’d followed together for better or worse. Tim leaned over Darcy to kiss Shana, the soft warmth of her lips on his curling around him like an embrace.
“So what’s the game plan?” she asked against his mouth. Always planning, always preparing for what was coming next. It was Shana who’d be doling out the day’s assignments to the team, but Tim had noticed lately she’d been pushing him to take the lead. That was about trust, but something else, too. A career dream she knew Tim held like a prized gemstone in his hand.
“Well, there’s Stacy Peel,” he said as Shana stroked Darcy’s strawberry hair, which seemed to be trying to curl, “but I thought I’d start with Terry Martino, the contractor who worked on Mikko Helle’s house. He’s one of the people who had easy access. With any luck, he hasn’t heard we found the bones and I can catch him unawares. He should be able to tell us who else was in the house over the last year, too.”
“Good idea. I’ll get this one sorted and head to the barracks.” As she spoke, Shana nuzzled Darcy’s cheek, eliciting a laugh. “Baby girl gets to spend the day with Nana Dori and Grandma C again.”
“Lucky them,” said Tim with a heavy sigh.
“The party’s not until seven, so we’ve got time. I hope Nicole can unwind a bit tonight,” said Shana. “Mac, too.”
“I had the same thought last night,” Tim put in. “Nicole looked pretty wrecked at The Brig. I keep thinking about how differently things could have gone. What if Jenny Smith had gotten violent with Nicole? Or with Eva? We really don’t know anything about her or what she’s capable of. And,” he went on, “what if Helle had found her instead? A stranger hiding in his house, a house where there was already one dead girl in the basement?”
Shana’s eyes dimmed as she looked down at their daughter. “Let’s keep it to ‘Happy Birthday’ at the party and thank the North Country gods it wasn’t worse.”
“Yeah,” Tim said. Shana was right; no point wasting timeon worst-case scenarios. The crime was bad enough as it was. “Coffee?”
“Heck yes,” she said, shielding a yawn with the back of her hand. “By the gallon.”
