Grave Echoes: A Kate Waters Mystery (4 page)

“Well, pray you don’t have a little Miss Krakatoa, because unlike her daddy, she may blow more than just steam.”

Before he could respond, she left the room, hearing him muffle something under his breath, but she heard Sean say, “You wouldn’t know the first thing about women…”

Yet more engrossing to her than Stewart’s inadequate sensitivities were the stats coming in from the seismograph and EDMs. She studied the print out while walking back to her office. An unusually strong magnitude earthquake had struck near the south flank of Mt. Hood with a high number of aftershocks. The alarming shift between the two transmitters stationed near the summit warned of serious ground movement inside the volcano. It wasn’t the kind of news she wanted to hear, especially with her narcolepsy flaring up again. Stress only made it worse. If she had a sleep attack or hallucinatory paralysis on the mountain, she would be putting herself and the team in danger. Stewart would never let her hear the end of it.

Kate shook another worry from her mind and continued down the hallway separating the front and back rooms. Pictures of Mt. St. Helens and Krakatoa before and after the explosions hung on the walls, along with a couple of other volcanoes Stewart had visited in South America. A large conference room and a bathroom were on the left, and two offices were on the right, one claimed as storage, and the other was Stewart’s “man cave,” or so it had been nicknamed. The back room was open like the front office, which was where Kate, Sean, and Bruce usually worked together.

Kate had just passed the door to the conference room when Sean came up behind her. “Have you seen Jev?” he asked.

Kate stopped and faced him. Fresh cigarette smoke on his breath wafted towards her. “No. I thought she was staying with you?” Kate replied.

Sean shook his head and looked down at his hands as he fumbled with his keys. “We had a fight the other night. I was just wondering if maybe she had talked with you at all. I’ve been trying to get hold of her, but she won’t return any of my phone calls.”

“Really?” Tendrils of yesterday’s hallucination seeped back into her consciousness like a cold ghost. “I haven’t spoken with her either. Did you two have the fight last night?”

“No, it was the night before last. It wasn’t really a fight, more like a disagreement. I didn’t think much of it.” Sean looked unusually weary. Dark circles outlined his bloodshot eyes and his face and lips looked dry and cracked. “She left the house in a hurry, said she had something to do. I haven’t heard from her since.”

Kate realized that most people would consider her sister’s typical behavior as abnormal, including herself. Uneasiness from her hallucination still troubled her though. While she didn’t believe in sixth senses or supernatural premonitions, it was strangely coincidental that she started having these episodes since Jev’s hiatus from family and friends. Kate tried to reassure Sean, and herself.

“I’m sure everything is fine. Jev gets busy sometimes. Just give her some space, she’ll come back around.”

“All right, sure.” He backed away, looking a bit apprehensive about their conversation. “Thanks,” he said, and then disappeared into the front room.

Kate didn’t like being put in the middle of Jev and Sean’s relationship, especially when it was happening at her work. She had enough troubles with Stewart. Eventually, she hoped Jev would realize Sean wasn’t her type. Maybe she already had, Kate reflected. It could explain her disappearance.

Kate entered the back room, expecting to see Bruce, one of their newest geologists on the team, skipping from monitor to monitor like a kid in a candy store. His passion for volcanoes was almost romantic, and even though he didn’t have his doctorate, his experience traveling around the world’s volcanoes trumped everyone else’s education. But Bruce didn’t look jovial at all. Instead, he sat hunched over his desk, cradling his head in his fingertips. His leg shook continuously.

“Bruce?”

He looked up from his desk. Dark blond hair stuck up from his forehead like a rooster’s mane and his face looked ashen.

“You think this is the big one?” she asked him.

“That’s not what concerns me.”

If a volcano exploding wasn’t his main concern, Kate couldn’t imagine what he was about to say. She took a seat next to him. Her hands tingled and she tried to rub away the sensation on her jeans.

He studied her for a moment before speaking. “The epicenter of this morning’s quake was a few miles below the mountain, but aftershocks took place near the Boring lava vents.”

“It’s normal to get dispersed aftershocks due to pressure changes in the mountain.”

“Yeah, but most volcanoes’ vents aren’t scattered beneath half a million people.” Bruce pointed to Portland on the map by his desk where clusters of red dots marked ancient lava vents. “There are vents all over this city.”

“Stewart said the Boring lava vents were not only formed well before Mt. Hood’s growth, but that they were related to completely different geological events.”

“Yeah, but crustal deformation from the swelling of a magma chamber could exploit weaknesses in the earth’s crust; hence, a hundred different vents are at risk of reopening around the city.”

For once, Kate hoped Stewart was right.

Aaron stepped into the backroom, bad news written all over his face. “Kate, you have a call on line one.”

She looked at Bruce before picking up. “Hello?”

“Kate?”

“Dad? What’s wrong?” Her heart quickened—not only had they not spoken in months but his voice wasn’t right. “What’s going on?”

“There’s been an accident…with your sister,” his voice quivered. Fear struck her like a giant wave, knocking the breath from her. Kate placed her hand on the desk for support, struggling to understand and decipher his words.

Her father continued, “I’m leaving the house now and I’m on my way to Portland.”

She tried to respond, but couldn’t find her voice. Time seemed to thicken like mud, shrinking and hardening her senses, as though she was drowning in quicksand, desperately clawing for consciousness. Her surroundings slowed and she knew she was entering a state of shock—she had been there before, under too familiar circumstances.

“Is she okay?”

“No.”

Then, her body melted and everything went black.

“I love you K.” Those were the last words Kate had heard her sister say to her when she spoke with her on the phone a week ago. In the emptiness of her heart, the phrase echoed repeatedly, each reverberation seemingly more hushed, more distant as Jev slipped away. Now, sitting in a hard, black plastic chair at Emanuel Hospital in the north wing where the deceased awaited relocation, Kate struggled to comprehend the devastating turn of events in her life. Her sister was dead. She would never see Jev smile again, or hear her laugh, or watch the way she would jog her arms when she got excited about something. These memories would never be replenished again. And time would dilute their details and potency. She should know.

The sterile room enhanced the raw pain swelling in her heart. The bare walls, florescent lighting, and empty tables provide little comfort for the cold reality she faced. David came to the hospital immediately and sat with her, rubbing her hands and shoulders. His touch glided over the contour of her bones with the softness of his skin that under normal circumstances would feel reassuring. But circumstances wouldn’t be normal—not for a long time.

In the middle of the room, a black table and plastic chairs encircled a mini kitchen, equipped with a sink, two cupboards, and coffee bar. A blue loveseat and two wooden, padded chairs with floral designs crowded the space along the opposite wall. Kate avoided them; she didn’t want to be comfortable right now. How could she sit comfortably while her sister lay cooling on a metal slab? Instead, she rested one elbow on the table with her head cradled in her hand.

Down the hall, she could hear nurses and doctors shuffling about their usual day. She wondered how they could work in this section of the hospital. Witnessing people lose loved ones everyday had to wear on them emotionally. Or had they become so desensitized to grief, it became just another job, another family, another life gone? She guessed it would have to be like that. Commiseration could be dangerous if it was required on a daily basis.

David’s voice came soft to her ears. “Do you want something to drink?” he asked.

“No, just wish Jack would hurry up…I don’t know how long I can stay here.”

“He’ll be here soon.” David squeezed her shoulder. “Are you ready to see him again?”

He knew about her resentment toward her father and why. He knew about the disappointment and about how it pained Kate even more that her sister had readily taken her father’s side in keeping their mother’s cancer a secret. She loved her father and sister, and though she’d come to forgive Jev for not agreeing with her, she still felt the sting of betrayal whenever she saw her father—trust had been infected with disloyalty.

“I’m never ready to see him,” she replied.

“Well, I’m here for you.” David brushed hair from her cheek.

As much as Kate wanted to break down and cry, she felt frozen, unable to release the turbulent feelings out of fear she would spiral into a dark oblivion. She knew this kind of grief all too well, having experienced its despair when her mother died. It was like swimming upstream in ice-cold water—a burning in her chest, the strain in her muscles, slowing her reactions and flooding her thoughts with torrential bleakness. It was all a normal part of grieving, she knew, but knowing didn’t help the pain any, and she sensed it wasn’t going to make it any easier.

A familiar voice down the hall woke Kate from her silent stupor; it was her dad and Louise. She stood up from the table just as a nurse escorted them into the waiting room. Jack wore one of his favorite OSU sweatshirts and a black baseball cap that concealed his red, puffy eyes. Louise held onto his arm tightly, dressed for an occasion as usual, with her gold earrings, bracelets, slacks, and cable-knit sweater. Even in the earliest hours of the morning, she managed to look like she just walked out of a catalog, sparking more annoyance than envy in Kate.

Jack walked in as if he had been drinking: his shoulders were slouched, his movements exaggerated, and his footing appeared uneven. But it was the expression on his face that emphasized his sorrow. Kate had seen it only once before. His face drooped at the corners of his mouth and eyes, revealing the heavy weight of his pain. One of his daughters was dead and she’d been his favorite. He and Jev had been connected in a way that Kate never would be, but had come to accept after years of favoring, distanced emotions, and heated battles. Now as an adult, Kate understood that some people were just more alike.

The nurse held the door open for Jack and Louise. He stopped in front of Kate. She wondered if he wanted a hug, but she couldn’t offer him affection. The pain was too great and she wasn’t ready to forgive. Jev’s death surfaced what she had been ignoring for two years—resentment about her mother’s death that had bled her cold.

Louise grabbed Kate’s hand in both of hers. Bracelets and rings made the connection feel spurious. “Oh, Kate, you poor thing,” she said.

Her words felt like dry ice to Kate. Louise’s eyes were painted perfectly with gold shadow and clean mascara; Kate knew she hadn’t cried a drop. “Thanks for coming,” Kate said anyway. Jack made a grunt and then walked away from Kate to the opposite side of the room.

Louise leaned into Kate. “You can’t stay mad at him forever. You’re going to have to find forgiveness in your heart some day.”

Hot thoughts surged into Kate’s mind. It was easy for Louise to say such things, Kate thought, since she didn’t even have a heart to forgive with. “This doesn’t change things,” Kate responded back.

Jack stopped and turned around to face Kate. “Of course it doesn’t. I was an idiot for thinking anything different.”

“I’ll give you a moment before the deputy comes in,” the nurse said, her eyes as wide as the cartoon dog’s picture on her smock. She shut the door quietly and Kate felt the room become uncomfortably silent.

Jack sat on the couch and looked at his folded hands. “They weren’t my wishes Kate. I only did what Ellen wanted. She was the one dying you know.”

Kate shook her head as tears spilled down her cheeks. “You let her die alone.”

“We were all there when she died,” he said, a deep hollowness crested in his voice.

David stepped between them. “This isn’t about Ellen—we’re here for Jev. Let’s just focus on what needs to be done and worry about the past later.”

He had entered work mode, Kate noted, seemingly overly calm, supportive, yet stern with direction.

But her dad didn’t get it, Kate thought, and she’d given up on trying a long time ago. She moved to the coffee station at the little countertop and poured herself a cup of coffee.

“This is a difficult time for all of us,” Louise began to say. “I think it would be a good idea to put our negativities aside since we have enough pain to deal with already.” Normally, Kate would have agreed with that, but since Louise’s gaze seemed fixed on her, it came across as if she were the one causing trouble.

Kate fumed inside, questioning what Louise really knew about pain—she’d been part of the problem, marrying her dad only six months after her mother’s death two years ago. They’d moved to Salem and then spent all their vacation days traveling around the country. Holidays came and went but her dad never visited, never called. Although her relationship with him soured shortly after her mother’s death, she also felt his distance had something to do with Louise’s high-maintenance nature, in which Jack was more than ready to take on a relationship that distracted him from those relations that were broken. Except with Jev. They seemed to stay in contact just fine—a distant one, but at least she got holiday cards.

Kate wiped her eyes for the last time. She was done crying.

David stood. “Can I get the two of you some coffee?”

“Oh yes, that would be nice, David,” Louise replied. “Jack will take his black and I wouldn’t mind just a dash of cream and sugar.”

David filled two cups full of what tasted like brown water to Kate, stirred in cream and sugar for Louise, and then politely handed them their cups. Still in work mode, Kate thought. Thank God, for she wasn’t feeling into pleasantries.

For several minutes, they all sat sniffling and shifting in their seats. As Kate thought about what her life was going to be like without Jev, her mind started to plunge deeper into a dark, icy crevice of anguish. Everything seemed so trivial now, the changes from her move, her narcolepsy, even the threat of the volcano. A part of her hoped the mountain would blow, sweeping her up in a lahar that would deposit her mud-crusted body twenty miles down the valley.

She looked over to her dad. He stared at her. For a moment, she tried to imagine his loss. Losing a daughter was probably worse than losing a sister, but Jev hadn’t been just a sister—she’d been her best friend.

“Do you know what happened? Why she crashed?” It was the only question in the world that really mattered to Kate.

“I’m not sure,” Jack said. “The police wanted an official to talk with us before they said anything.”

All Kate could do was nod. After a few more minutes of numbing silence, a knock at the door snagged everyone’s attention away from train-wrecked thoughts. A man with dark features and a mustache walked into the room, wearing blue jeans, cowboy boots, and brown leather hat. He held a large briefcase and a cardboard box. Kate thought he looked more like a sheriff’s posse than a police official. He set the box down on the break table. David, who sat closest to the door, stood up to greet him.

“Hello,” the man said, extending his hand to meet David’s palm. “I’m Detective Orwin Wells with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Department.” His large eyes scanned the room, pausing on Kate.

“David Bradshaw,” David said, shaking his hand. He motioned toward Kate. “This is Kate, Jev’s sister.”

Kate held her hand out to the detective. “Hello,” she said. She felt as though she should be more cordial, but it seemed such a foreign emotion at the moment. She wanted to run far away, without ever stopping.

“I thought the police department was going to send out a deputy,” Jack said.

“I do carry a badge, but investigation is my specialty. Is it all right that I speak with you?” Wells flashed his identification badge.

“Of course, we just want to know what happened,” Louise said.

“I’m Jack, Jev’s father, and this is my wife, Louise.”

“Hello,” the detective replied, shaking Louise and Jack’s hand. Then he set his briefcase down by the padded, floral chair next to the door and slung his coat over the back, placing his hat on top of the table. He sat down and paused for a moment before speaking. “I’m truly sorry for your loss,” he started. “I know this is an awful moment, and you probably have a lot of questions.”

“What happened?” Kate blurted, wanting to skip formalities.

Wells jumped in. “At 2:30 am this morning, Jevanna Waters passed away due to trauma to the left temporal side of her brain after her car rolled and collided into a tree on Capital Highway.”

Kate trembled, as if a river of ice flowed through her bone marrow. Louise made a gasping sound and her ruby-tipped nails covered her mouth. Detective Orwin Wells stopped for a moment to let the news sink in. Then, he continued.

“No other cars appear to have been involved in your sister’s accident. So far we are assuming she either lost control of her car as she was speeding, or she fell asleep at the wheel.”

There it was. The awful truth.

Kate imagined the scene of the accident, how it must have played out. Jev’s green Volvo in a mangled heap, broken glass raked across the road, and her head…it must have bled from the impact. Another cold shiver passed through her body as she recollected images and sounds from her recent hallucinations—the car crash she thought she had heard…the blood on Jev’s face…her panicked whisper. Kate remembered these images so clearly, as if they were happening all over again. Stunned and confused, she blinked back to the present. The detective stared at her.

“What do you mean by assume?” Jack asked. “You don’t know if she lost control of the car or not?”

“Not until we make an official investigation,” Wells said.

“Did she suffer?” Immediately, Kate regretted the question. What if she had? Her eyes dropped to the floor; she didn’t want to see the truth in Wells’ eyes.

“It’s too early to know for sure,” he replied.

Kate looked up. His brown eyes glimmered enigmatically, as if he searched her thoughts. Although he had handsome features, it was the fire behind his eyes that struck her most, a gaze that could lure a person inside his world. “But from what I can tell,” Wells continued, “I believe she died rather quickly.”

“How fast was she going?” Jack asked.

“Around 20 mph over the speed limit.”

Kate knew her sister had a lead foot, but 20 mph over the speed limit seemed excessive even for Jev.

“Evidence from the accident has been collected,” Wells stated, “so now it is up to the Forensic Investigation Motor and Vehicle Incident division to reconstruct a full report.”

“When will that be?” Louise grabbed Jack’s arm. “When will we know what happened for sure?”

“We should have something by the end of the month.” Wells shifted his gaze back to Kate. “If you don’t mind," he said, "there are a few questions I would like to ask you?”

Jack frowned. “What kind of questions?”

“Just routine questions. Since the accident involved a fatality, and there were no witnesses, we need to rule out alternative possibilities.”