Oblivion (4 page)

Dan might be seven years older and a cop, but Marnie was eighteen and hardly jail bait. He was good looking, but the smile never quite reached his eyes. He seemed annoyed to have to take a report from her. His pleasant demeanor vanished when the sheriff walked out of the station.

“Don’t you think this is a waste of time, Lindsay?” he asked in irritation as he got all the forms under the counter. “He’s a Turner, for crying out loud. Did you look to see if he’s sitting next to his old man in the bar?”

“He doesn’t drink, Dan,” she informed him coldly. “He’d never leave his brother here all day. Didn’t you think it was a bit odd?”

Dan glared at her. “We don’t sit here and eat donuts all day, Lindsay. I didn’t know Dougie was still here until Miller came in and closed up for the day.”

“I know Jace. Something’s wrong. He’d never leave the kids.”

“Ok, just calm down and fill these forms out,” Dan said in irritation. “I have to go in the back and send a patch out to Bob. If we find the kid; I’ll call you.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Dan eyed her with a knowing grin. “Do you want to know something, Lindsay? I always had a crush on you when I hung out with Lance.”

She gazed at him without expression, not interested in knowing what he thought at all. “Yeah, well had my brother known, he would have nipped it in the bud. He was awfully protective.”

“You hear from Lance these days?”

Lindsay frowned as she took the clipboard from him. “No, he hasn’t called at all. When he calms down, he will. The thing with our Dad and Margene was getting to him.”

Dan’s eyes seemed to linger on her in a way that made her aware the sheriff’s deputy still had said crush on her.

“Margene will get bored with him. Maybe he’ll go back to your Mom.”

“That’s not happening. The divorce is final in June.”

“I’m sorry Lindsay. I always liked your Mom.”

“She’s having a rough time, but she’ll be ok.”

Lindsay filled out the papers as Dan left her to dispatch the missing persons report on Jace. The guy came back after several minutes and looked slightly disturbed. He made a call and took the papers from her. Within minutes, Sheriff Wilson came back through the doors, looking wide awake and alarmed.

“Dan, you tell Bob to get a crew up there from the State Police pronto,” he called to his deputy, eying Lindsay gravely as he approached. Something in his face made her feel cold all over.

She dreaded asking. “What is it?”

Sheriff Wilson looked uncomfortable and ashen-faced. “Lindsay, Bob found the truck. He found Jace. He’s dead, honey. I’m sorry.”

Lindsay stared, too stunned to react. Jace wasn’t dead. This wasn’t happening. One word escaped her.

 “How?”

He looked visibly shaken and upset and looked away from her tearful gaze. “Bob said he found him dead. I’m sorry Lindsay, but you have to go home now and let us handle this.”

She didn’t hear him anymore. Her breath stopped with a painful tightening in her chest. The panic in her expression must have alerted Sheriff Wilson she was about to lose it.

He hollered in the back for Dan. She crumpled against the counter, raw sobs escaping her now. Sheriff Wilson held her while she cried. The old man set her away from him, his kindly eyes meeting hers.

“It’s gonna be ok, Lindsay. I know this is hard for you, but were gonna get the guy who did this.”

Lindsay was too shocked to do more than cry and tremble.

“Dan, we're gonna be crawlin’ with State boys within the hour. Take Lindsay home and go out and help Bob secure that crime scene,” the sheriff hollered.

Lindsay followed the deputy from the building, not aware she still held the clipboard in her hands. She sat frozen in disbelief in the front seat of Dan’s SUV patrol vehicle. He pried it out of her fingers, seeing how pale she was with a concerned look. He said nothing as he rushed to get her home. She resented the excitement he didn’t bother to hide to know he got his first big case since becoming a cop.

Tears flooded her eyes when he dropped her at her stairs. She crumpled at the bottom, hyperventilating in her anguish. What was she going to do without Jace? Who would have done such a thing? Everyone loved Jace. He had no enemies. This wasn’t happening. Dazed, she stared into space with no sense of time.

She had no idea how long she sat there until the headlights of Mr. Merriman’s vehicle alerted her that her mother was home from her dinner date. She felt drained and incredibly empty inside. The horror of her boyfriend being murdered didn’t seem real until Deborah and Mr. Merriman approached. He wisely took his leave, seeing her obvious distress.

“What is it?” her mother asked as she rushed forward, eyes filled with concern. “What’s happened?”

“It’s Jace, Mom,” she whispered hoarsely, her devastated gaze blinded with fresh hot tears. “He’s dead!”

Chapter Three

Deborah looked shocked and before Lindsay knew it; she was in her mother’s arms. Her anguished sobs must have alerted Dougie and Sara. They stood on the mat at the door to the apartment crying now too. Their immediate needs made her suddenly aware they must be devastated.

She wiped her eyes and looked up at them in sorrow. “I need your help, Mom. I don’t know what to tell them.”

Deborah took over then, whirling her daughter upstairs. She ushered the two children into the apartment and sat them down. The heart-wrenching scene was surreal. Sara sobbed loudly in Lindsay’s arms. Dougie looked sick to hear his brother was gone. The little boy looked was trembling and shaken.

While her mom took over with Dougie and Sara, a call came in from the Sheriff’s office. Everett was too drunk to make the official identification of his son’s body. The State Police were there. It had to be done. Deborah looked furious to know they expected Lindsay to identify him.

In the end, Lindsay went, numb and mentally drained. Dan came by to get her at three in the morning, looking like he was happy to have a murder case. She wanted to take his night stick and slap him around at his thoughtless behavior. 

Standing outside the room where Jace lay, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The coroner waited within. It had to be done. She pushed open the door and met the kindly look from the coroner and his assistant from Helena.

The sheet was pulled back. She gasped with a plaintive sob and turned away. Her eyes would never forget the bluish, dead face of Jason Turner as long as she lived. The agony of seeing his lifeless face kept her from seeing the many stab wounds to his chest and neck thankfully.

She cringed in the lobby to hear about the high number of stab wounds he received from an unknown assailant. It was surmised it was a robbery. He withdrew money at an ATM prior to dropping off Dougie. Six hundred dollars was withdrawn. The money wasn’t found on his body.

He dropped Cam at Marnie’s trailer on the other side of town. Something happened to him on his way back. They speculated he picked up a drifter. They didn’t know anything for sure and the questions were many.

His body was found lying next to his truck on a deserted road along Route 4. The truck was parked off to the side, hidden in the trees. She could only guess he was forced to drive there, tortured at the images of his dying so hideously.

It was too out of his way for the police to not assume he was followed and attacked after using the ATM machine. The bank was notified for a video of the transaction. There was a slim hope it captured his assailant.

This was Little Bend. There were no security cameras here. People didn’t die from being murdered, just from disease or old age. People didn’t lock their doors at night or worry about maniacs with knives lurking about. Everyone thought they were safe from crime. The murder shocked the town of three thousand people.

News crews arrived from Helena within the hour. By noon the following day, the murder went national. Everyone asked the same question. Who would have done such a thing?

Lindsay stayed home from the school that first day, dodging the reporters that buzzed everywhere looking for a story.  The story on TV painted a glowing picture of Jace, his football career, his devotion to his family.  She couldn’t bear to watch, too heartsick to even get out of bed.

Her mom was looking after Dougie and Sara. She couldn’t do anything for anyone right now, except cry until her eyes swelled shut. The police questioned Cam and Marnie the most. They kept bringing Cam back in for questioning those first few days. Something in his story didn’t sit well with the cops.

The three hour time period between Jace dropping him at Marnie’s and his girlfriend arriving home to find him on her porch made him a potential suspect. It was ridiculous. Cam was Jace’s best friend. They should be out looking for Jace’s killer, but within days of the murder, it was rumored they were looking at Cam more closely.

“Shut that crap off, honey. You don’t need this right now,” Deborah said as she poked her head in her daughter’s room and went and shut off her TV on her dresser. “You need to get up. The funeral director wants to meet with you and the kids today to plan Jace’s funeral.”

“I don’t want to deal with this now, Mom!” Lindsay cried and shoved her ravaged face back into her pillow.

Deborah frowned and sat on the end of her bed. Her blue eyes were sad. “None of us do, Lindsay. It has to be done. Foster’s funeral home agreed to handle all the expenses for the funeral. You owe this to Jace and the kids to see this through. They just want to get a few ideas and pictures of Jace.”

“Why ask me?” Lindsay seethed and flung her mother a resentful look. “Why not ask that no good father of his?”

Deborah sighed sadly and pulled the worn quilt off her daughter. “Everett went on a bender as soon as he heard about his son. You have to get up, Lindsay. Enough is enough. I know what you’re going through. Things have to be done for him. His dad is worthless right now. Think of Sara and Dougie, Babe. They can’t do this alone.”

Lindsay wiped at her tears. Her face stung. She knew she must look as bad as she felt. Her mother handed her a tissue and stood.

“I know you think I’m heartless that I’m making you do this, but you can’t think about all the pain right now. I went through this with my dad when he passed. Grieve for him when he’s finally resting, Sweetie. That will get you through the next couple of days.”

Her Mom went out and closed the door quietly. Lindsay knew she was right. She owed it to Jace to make his funeral arrangements. Foster’s was generous enough to bury Jace now. She couldn’t let them make all the arrangements without some personal input. A hollow stabbing pain was felt in her heart to realize two days before she’d been planning their life together. Now she planned her boyfriend’s funeral.

~ ~ ~

Gary Wilson was in law enforcement longer than he could remember. A former Marine Corp Vet, he did his time and became a cop when he got out of the military. A ten year stint in a rough Chicago precinct back in the day reminded him the Turner boy’s murder was far from resolved.

 When the State boys rolled out of Little Bend two days later, they waited for the FBI to step in. He shuffled the coroner’s reports, countless statements from witnesses who documented the Turner boy’s last movements, and something just didn’t fit.

The boy was unquestionably devoted to his younger brother and sister. He wouldn’t have left them in town unattended. Cameron Chase insisted Jace Turner agreed to give him a ride to Marnie Slade’s trailer that morning. That was when the questions began.

Cameron insisted he was dropped at the Slade trailer before ten in the morning. Not one resident of the squalid trailer park could verify Chase’s presence on Marnie’s porch until after one in the afternoon. The Slade girl didn’t arrive home from work until one-thirty. Why would Cameron wait for his girl three hours knowing she wasn’t at home?

The murder scene was also less than three miles away. The cop in him saw the obvious gaps in Chase’s alibi of where he was those three and a half hours. Unlike everyone else, he saw it as opportunity. The Chase boy was the last one to see Jace Turner alive. Like it or not, he was a potential suspect.

Gary also saw how quick the boy demanded his Father be called and an attorney as soon as he was brought in for questioning. If the kid didn’t have anything to hide; he sure acted fishy from the start. Something in his manner disturbed Sheriff Wilson. Those soulless blue eyes seemed unaffected from the grief he should feel to know his best friend was just murdered.

The sheriff had little to go on retracing Jace’s steps. The boy withdrew six hundred dollars from his account at shortly after nine, dropped his brother at the office, and went to an antique shop down the road to buy his girlfriend a gift.

Amelia Warren of Amelia’s boutique and gifts verified the antique ruby and diamond ring was purchased by Jace Turner before ten that morning. She said the two boys met up outside the storefront and left together. The receipt for the ring was found in his pocket, but the ring was missing, and three hundred in cash he had on him.

This all troubled Gary. He was less than two months from retirement and Dan would take over as Sheriff. He didn’t like the way this case pulled at him like no other had before in his career.

Maybe it was the way the Morgan girl sobbed all over his shirt uniform that night, or it was his thoughts of his own son. Whatever it was, it kept him pushing at his notion Cameron Chase was hiding something.

Unless they charged the Chase boy, they had no cause to continue to bring him in. Gary sighed and sat back, looking out the window of his office. His grey eyes were narrowed thoughtfully.

 The Slade girl knew more than she let on. The Goth-looking girl wore too much make-up and her skirts were too short. She got around too. Dan claimed he ‘hit’ that plenty when she came in for questioning.

Gary saw the nervous way the girl smoked and avoided his eyes. She claimed to know Cameron was waiting for her that morning, though unlikely, as no text messages and calls were exchanged between them.

She backed up Cam’s story but her demeanor was far from normal. She waxed between crying and looking tough during the interview. She and the Turner boy were close. How close was what Gary wondered. The Slade girl ran around. According to Dan; she was a freak in the bed.