(2012) Colder Than Death (6 page)

“Wasn't that bad. She just didn't connect with me the way I connected with her. To this day, I haven't felt that connection with anyone. To her I was just a summer fling.”

“I know the feeling. I was summer-flinged last year. What was her name?”

“Alyssa.”

“What happened to her?”

“She left town. Broke up with me and took off.”

The conversation was starting to upset me. I didn't want to talk about Alyssa. I never talked about her anymore. I tried not to even let myself
think
about her. Despite the fact that I hadn't seen her in nearly fifteen years, I still missed her, thought about her.

“You still feel the same way about her?”

“Could we talk about something else?”

“I'm pushing your buttons, aren't I?”

“How'd you guess?”

“I do that to people a lot. You must've really had it bad for her.”

“First love. It was a long time ago.” I paused for a moment. “I believe we were talking about how your love for your Aunt made you realize something.”

“Oh, yeah. I knew she wouldn't have left without saying good-bye to me. Maybe not to anyone else. But she would have said something to my face. And she wouldn't have left her notebooks. They were important to her to take them with her or destroy them.” She raised her right index finger to her left eye, then her right eye, wiping tears from both. “And if she didn't say good-bye to me she would've had a good reason, probably because I'd cry and whine, but she would definitely have sent me a letter once she got where she was going. I used to think that even if she'd been kidnapped she would have found a way to let me know that she was alright, but... ”

Her voice trailed off. “When she was alive I used to wish that Aunt Brandy was my mother. When she was gone, I wished that she was my friend. I miss her. I mean one day she was here and the next day... ” She snapped her fingers. “Gone. Nothing. Six years old and I
knew
somebody killed her. For the last nine years I've been waiting for her body to be discovered--here or ten thousand miles away. I hoped they'd find her in another town so somebody competent would be in charge of solving the case instead of an A-hole like Perry Cobb.”

I liked the fact that she disliked Perry, but I wondered why. I also felt a strange compulsion to defend him, if for no other reason than to give Quilla some hope.

“Why so negative about Perry Cobb?” I asked.

“Because he hates me.”

“How can he hate
you
? How does he even
know
you?”

“I had some problems last year,” she said sheepishly. “With drinking. And drugs. A couple of friends and I stole a car. We got caught DWI. It was stupid. Cobb kept us in jail overnight. Since then, he gives us grief at every turn.”

I hated defending Perry, but in this instance I had to. “Do you blame him? You could've hurt somebody. Maybe killed somebody. Maybe yourself.”

“I know. But he was mean to us. Made it seem like we were less than human. The only cop I ever met who was worth anything is Greg.”

“You know Greg Hoxey?”

“He's my friend. He's different from the other cops.”

“What's different about Greg?” I was curious as to how she happened to be on a first name basis with Greg.

“He used to be like us in high school. Into heavy metal, hair down to his ass and liked to get wasted. Greg is cool.”

Greg Hoxey cool? I said to myself. I was beginning to question her powers of observation.

“He's like this really excellent older brother who gives you money and won't tell your parents that you're sneaking out. I wish
he
was in charge of the investigation. Greg would try. Cobb's not gonna do squat.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because he hates people like me and my Aunt was like me and I'm like her and in Cobb's eyes we're nothing but sluts who hang with crazed druggies.”

“How do you know he thinks that?”

“Are you really that naive?” she sneered. “Maybe you've been around so many dead bodies you're out of touch.”

“With what?”

“The real world.”

She might be right
, I said to myself.

“I'll be honest with you, Quilla. There's no love lost between Perry Cobb and me, so you won't see me defending him. But I think you're wrong about him not caring about finding the killer.”

“Why?” she sneered.

“Because he never had a murder case before and solving it will be a tremendous ego trip for him. He'll be doing everything in his power, pulling out all the stops because he's insecure enough to know that people will be watching him. As Chief of Police he has to be elected. No one has ever run against him because it's a nowhere job in a nowhere town that pays next to nothing. But it's all he's got. And if there's someone crazy enough to want to be Police Chief, maybe even Greg Hoxey, if Perry doesn't find your Aunt's killer, it might be just the thing that prompts somebody to take Perry on.”

“Just because he wants to solve the case doesn't mean he has the brains to do it.”

“The police here have all the latest technology at their disposal.”

“We'll see,” she said sheepishly, then took a long, deep breath. “Are we almost there? I'm getting nervous about this. I've only been in a cemetery twice. When my grandparents died.”

“Ten minutes.”

She leaned her head against the window and stared out. She yawned. She seemed so alone in her grief. It was a feeling I'd known well.

It was bad enough when my father died, but I felt an even deeper sense of anguish when I was eighteen and Alyssa went away. I felt as if she
had
died. Because we'd broken up three weeks before she left Dankworth I'd been pining for her, unable to sleep, driving past her parents' house hoping to get a glimpse of her. I didn't even know she'd gone until Chester Cobb phoned me to ask if I'd seen her. Her mother had filed a missing person report and mentioned that I'd been dating her.

But then three days after she was reported missing a note from Alyssa had come in the mail with a New York City postmark to her parents. She apologized for leaving without saying good-bye, said that she needed to be alone and that she would be in touch. A note, also postmarked New York City, came to me too.

Dear Del,

I had to get away. Take care of yourself.

Maybe some day you'll see me again.

Alyssa

The most confusing thing about the note was that
I
got it. I wasn't her boyfriend anymore. Six months later I received a postcard from her postmarked in Chicago with another brief message. While I think of Alyssa often, I seldom think of the note and postcard. Though I kept them, and even valued them, as if they were love letters, I never look at them because an overwhelming feeling of confusion overtakes me. I still don't know why she sent them to me. In my more romantic notions, I pretend that she really did love me back. In my practical moods I convince myself that she sent them to me out of pity.

As Quilla gazed out the window in a numbed silence, I spent the remainder of the drive pondering something she had said. Specifically, would Perry be taking this murder seriously? I hadn't spoken to him about it since the day the body was found. Despite my guess that whoever was the killer knew something about cemeteries, I felt Perry would probably have nothing to go on until the victim's identity was discovered. But now that he knew, I wasn't sure what steps he would take to start an investigation.

As I approached the main entrance to Elm Grove cemetery I decided that I would transfer the empathy I was feeling for Quilla into something constructive. First chance I had, which would probably be later in the day, I would approach Perry and ask him what, if anything, was being done about the Brandy Parker murder.

Chapter 8

As I drove through the cemetery gates, I focused my attention on the business at hand: finding the place of burial for Brandy Parker.

The first stop would be the Administration Office where I would have Mel or George punch up Suzanne Worthington's parents' names on the computer. Division, Section and Plot numbers would be instantly forthcoming. As to whether or not Brandy could be laid to rest near her parents, that would be a different matter. It depended on where they were buried.

Officially there are two Divisions in Elm Cross cemetery: the Modern Division and the Original, but unofficially there are three, the third being located in a small, barely discernable area of the Original. This was the first Elm Grove cemetery, roughly half the size of a football field, adjacent to a Methodist church, long since torn down, and where the first residents of Dankworth, most of whom were born in the middle of the eighteenth century, were laid to rest.

Even the most fanatical cemetery buff didn't know about this part of the grounds. It was hidden by a blending of shrubbery, rocks and long-dead oak trees. There was an entrance of sorts, but only someone who knew where to find it could gain access to this old bone yard.

Not that anyone would want to. Here there were no weathered, granite mausoleums or above ground crypts. Most of what was left of the tombstones and grave markers were completely devoid of information as to the identity of the people buried there. There was little, if any, symmetry to the positions of the graves. Most seemed too close together. Others were off by themselves, illogically situated without rhyme or reason. Here the grass and weeds, though maintained regularly, didn't have the manicured look of the rest of the cemetery. It was more like a deserted field that had been by-passed by a superhighway and the broken tombstones were more like rocks scattered about, tilting backwards or sideways or crumbled in heaps on the strawlike grass.

No one came to pay respects to these people anymore. And even if some long lost relative had shown up, odds are the burial site would never have been found. Mel had no records of the people here. Mel himself never even knew about the existence of the Division until he had been Manager of the cemetery for two years, and he didn't find out until Vaughn had fallen and broken his hip and, while recuperating at Dankworth General Hospital, asked to see Mel. When Mel came to Vaughn's bedside not only did he tell him about the forgotten burial ground, but he informed him of the fact that he owned a plot there in which he wanted to be buried.

Vaughn also confided to Mel that only two others knew about this secret burial ground: Alton Held and me. I knew because I would be handling the burial. Alton was told because, as Vaughn's replacement as Head Groundskeeper, he needed to know. Vaughn would be the last person to be buried in the secret area, primarily because there was no more room.

Space had also become a problem in the Original Division. No new gravesites were available. The only burials taking place in it were in family plots that had been purchased generations ago. Early in the twentieth century, when people tended to remain in the general vicinity of where they were raised, families of means bought plots, starting with four graves and expanding as necessary. Not only was it a practical decision, but also more economically sound than buying individual graves upon need.

The Modern Division is where the vast majority of burials take place. Unlike the oppressive mausoleums and crypts of the Original Division, it has the look and ambiance of the modern cemetery--”modern” going back to the 1950s when many newly created cemeteries forbade ostentatious monuments and apogees. In modern cemeteries headstones must be flat and in the ground. Gone were the imposing granite testimonials to the dead, usually chosen by the living as some final recognition to the deceased's wealth or status in life.

Vaughn felt that the larger and more elaborate and more expensive the headstone, the more guilt the survivors had for not adequately loving or honoring the deceased when he or she was alive. I believed that too.

*****

Quilla was still staring morosely out the window as we came to a stop in front of the Administration building. I explained to her that I would go inside and find out where her Grandparents were buried, then she and I would go to the graves to see if there was a site that met with her approval.

In the event that she would be uncomfortable being alone in the hearse, I asked her if she wanted to come with me. She yawned, said no and immediately began texting. I went inside. Mel had the information within a minute: New Division, Section 19, Plots 15 and 16. The information was a tad unsettling. My father's grave was less than thirty yards away. The area was actually very pleasant, near one of the man-made ponds and under a cheery-looking pine tree that provided nice shade in the summer.

Mel punched a couple of buttons on the computer to show the Plot availability in the area. No problem. There were plenty of openings only a few feet away. Brandy Parker could be laid to rest near her parents. Had I come out to the cemetery alone I wouldn't have bothered to check out the site. Mel and I could have taken care of business at his desk. But I knew Quilla would want to inspect the area and select the gravesite herself. I returned to the hearse and told her there was space available. In the brief time it took to get there she was silent. So was I. We didn't stay long.

I pointed out the plot nearest to Quilla's grandparents' graves. She stared at it for several seconds, then glanced at the headstone on her grandparents' graves. I thought she might take a moment to say a prayer, but she didn't. She just turned to me and said, “Aunt Brandy didn't like her mother and father. I don't think she'd want to be buried so close to them. Does it have to be right
here
? Can it be farther away?”

“It can be anywhere you want,” I said. “But didn't your mother say she wanted her buried with your grandparents?”

Quilla shrugged. “After the funeral, she'll never come to the grave again. I will, so I'll decide where she'll be buried. Can I walk around and find a spot that feels right?”

I nodded yes. “Take your time.” She wandered off.

To give her privacy, I ambled over to my dad's grave and stared at the marble stone, then at his name Dillard Coltrane, Jr. under which were the words Beloved Husband And Father along with his year of birth and death.